Rotary District 9212 which covers Kenya, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Eritrea has partnered with the State Department for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and the Kenya Forest Service in a tree planting project dubbed Plant Your Age Balance Campaign.
The Technical and Vocational Education and Training Department and Rotary District 9212 are both commemorating 100 years in 2024 and the tree planting initiative is one of their centenary projects, aimed at planting one million trees in six months.
During the six-month campaign, the Kenya Forest Service will provide trees for the initiative.
Under the Plant Your Age Balance Campaign, individuals will plant the number of trees remaining in their age to get to 100.
If one is 30, they plant 70 trees, according to the Centenary Committee of Rotary District 9212.
“This is an environmental initiative aimed at promoting the planting of trees, as a climate change adaptation initiative,” the committee’s Chairman Tito Tadeo said. “The signing of the partnership and launch will be on 3rd August at Kabete National Polytechnic at University of Nairobi’s Kabete Campus.”
In November 2023 hundreds of Rotarians across Kenya participated in the nation’s inaugural National Tree Planting Day, as part of the government’s target of planting 15.9 billion trees.
More than 25 Rotary clubs in Kenya participated in the National Tree Growing + Restoration Campaign, which targets growing the national tree cover to 30% by 2032 from 10% in 2022.
Kenya has 230 public TVETs spread across nine regions: Nairobi, Mt. Kenya East, Mt. Kenya West, South Rift, North Rift, Northern Kenya, Western Kenya, Lake Region and Coast Region.
The Greening and Climate Change Unit at the State Department for TVET has an annual target of planting five million trees, head of the unit Anne Kamonjo said.
In the year ending June 30, the unit planted almost four million trees, she said.