Happy Environment Day from Agahozo!

This past Saturday, Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village celebrated Rwanda's Environment Day. The Environment Club and its two sponsors (a woman named Anne-Marie and myself) coordinated the day's events, which included tree plantings, speeches, and a movie.

Two students and their housemother planted an acacia tree in their yard
 for Rwanda's Environment Day. When fully grown, this tree will be great
 for wildlife and for shade.

We started the day with over 50 people working on our new nature park and trail and gave the inaugural tour to some visiting donors (the park and trail will be covered in an upcoming post). Then we hosted an after-lunch event, where we screened a fun environmental film, heard from four speakers about water and trees, and explored environmental issues at an Idea Marketplace. This event attracted more than 250 village residents, including 220+ students and over 30 staff/volunteers. Finally, we planted 34 trees, including 11 acacia, 20 papaya, and 3 guava. Please enjoy the pictures of our version of Earth Day!

The theme of the day translates from Kinyarwanda to "Forests: Nature
is our service."

An Environmental Club member served as emcee for the event. Here she
introduced our film for the event, "Planet Earth: Freshwater." This film,
although it covers freshwater all over the planet, features an in-depth
look at the wetlands of the East African rift valley (where we are).

The Assistant Director of ASYV presented about our water challenges
at the village and how simple conservation steps can help us save water.

  Three members of the ASYV Environment Club spoke about the importance of trees, how to plant them, 

   and how to take care of trees. The Environment Club sponsored a tree giveaway at the event so that 

                                                       each family could plant a tree in their yard.

Volunteer Mike covered himself in mud to promote the Idea Marketplace
 that followed the movie and speeches. There is nothing like a guy covered
 in mud to motivate you to attend something.

Students examined moths, flowers, seedpods, feathers, and honeycomb
 with magnifying glasses at the “Nature Up Close” table.

Students perused nature books that they can check out
from ASYV’s library at the “Nature’s Library” table.

Students learned about composting and how it can help the
environment with farm manager Solomon.

Students colored an informational poster at the “Art in the Park” table. 

The informational poster featured living things from Agahozo's new
nature park.

Environment Club members gave out trees to representatives from each
family. We selected a native acacia species (umunyinya), papaya (papay),
and guava (amapera) for planting in the village.

A boy and his housemother planted an acacia in their yard. 

Two girls and their housemother posed with their new papaya tree.

Three girls planted their new papaya tree. 

Happy Environment Day from Rwanda!