A project plan by the African Youth and Children Network for Human Rights (REJADH – French acronym) from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) dubbed, ‘A student a tree’, has been selected for implementation as part of the World Banks’s global Ideas4Action program which was launched in January 2018.
The Idea4Action program was set in a way that a group of young people (made up of 3 to 6 young people) would develop a project within one of the themes of Sustainable Development Goals and submit the project in question to program in charge of study and analysis. The programs broad objective is fighting against the severe effects of climate change by mitigating the effects of global warming – which is at the centre of many discussions at the international level. Driven by the desire to mitigate the dreadful effects of global warming and to have children inherit an environment free of pollution, four youth from REJADH, South Kivu DRC decided to write and submit a project plan to the Ideas4Action program. The project plan was titled: Reforestation of Arteries from the City of Bukavu, with the tagline, ‘A pupil a tree.’ The project was valued at one hundred thousand six hundred and ninety thousand point five US dollar.
This project seeks to enable young people and children to discover the need for trees and their beneficial effects to the environment and the reduction of the effects of climate change. During this campaign, 15,000 trees will be planted by students across the Bukavu city in DRC. In the long term, the project will help restore the green environment of Bukavu City thereby reducing the harsh effects of climate change majorly caused by global warming. By extension, the young people will also be educated on the need to protect the environment and keep it free from pollution.
Today, the world, ravaged by the effects of global warming, those at the receiving end are children and youth who inherit a polluted environment. Such environment subjects them to harsh living conditions and in regards to the weather conditions it does not support agriculture thus causing food shortage and some far reaching effects like medical complications. For the children who inherit such a world, they are forced to live in poverty hence a need for them to be champions of a safe environment through such projects.