Planting trees at Mindililwo Special School

During our visit to Mindililwo Special School on 25 May 2024, pupils and the Momi Foundation team planted trees together in the school compound.

Pupils knelt alongside our volunteers to dig, plant the seedlings and press the soil down around them, while classmates and teachers gathered to watch and cheer.

Protected while they grow

The seedlings went into a fenced patch of the compound. Young trees are most at risk in their first year, from trampling feet and grazing animals, and a fence gives them the time they need to take root. Watering through the dry spells does the rest, and the pupils and teachers will be the ones looking after them.

Why trees at a school

Trees around a school give shade for learners at break time, shelter from the wind, and roots that hold the soil together when the rains come. For pupils, planting and caring for a tree is also a lesson they can watch grow, about patience, responsibility and looking after the place they live. The pupils dug, planted and pressed the soil down with their own hands, and they will pass these trees every school day as they grow taller year by year.

Planting trees is part of our Climate-Smart Agriculture work: healthy trees protect the soil, give shade and support the bees and other pollinators that farms in Marakwet depend on. Planting them with young people means the trees have caretakers who will watch them grow.

The planting was one part of a full day at the school, read about the gifts, cake, music and dance in A day with Mindililwo Special School, and about why trees and bees go together in Smart Agriculture: beekeeping and Why bees matter.

Thank you to Mindililwo Special School for planting with us.