Hill Top College, Mukono
Hosted a cafe on:-
Following in the steps of Wangari Mathai (Nobel Peace Prize winner): tree planting and our environment
26th February 2009
Speaker: Nuriat Tumanye, tree-planting expert from the National Forest Authority in Mukono.
Ms Nuriat is a Masters student in environment studies at Mbale Islamic University.
This turned out to be a very successful café! Twenty-eight students attended and the café was kept on time and very well-organised by a sex-balanced team of café organisers.
The speaker was very energetic and interesting, sparking considerable discussion with the students. Tumanye used demonstrations to illustrate tricky points - like breathing in and out to show how important trees are for absorbing carbon dioxide. With the students, Tumanye explored the wide range of uses we put trees to - research, medicine, food, habitat and more.
The students were inspired to plant seeds for future trees for themselves and their children. Some asked whether the national forest authority would provide seedlings for them to plant; Tumanye was able to tell them that a government environment program has started distributing seedlings through districts and that the school should approach their the district environment department.
Students' concerns ranged from impact of industrialisation to government programs on conservation versus community efforts. Although they feared that individual action against unfair government policies would be useless, examples of people like Wangari Mathai and his community activism were there to inspire them!
The students are eager to attend their next café which will be some time in May.
