Mandela Day - 67 Minutes

(Ziyabuya la!)

It was a wonderful day at Kids Impact pre-school in Kyasands. A total number of 50 volunteers from shell attended the tree-planting event which was organised by Food & Trees for Africa (FTFA), and sponsored by Shell. This was part of the Mandela Day - 67 minutes of community service.

This event was well managed by Trees for All Manager, Mary Ann who worked closely with Sipho, Solomon , Mookho (all Community Foresters). Adam, Sylvester and Megan also worked closely with Mary Ann.

The event started with Mary Ann giving orders to her team and allocating different roles to each one of them. Tools were placed in order (in five different groups); trees were also divided according to the number of the volunteers. There were 50 volunteers from shell. They were devided into five groups. Each group had 10 members.

The programme started at 09h00 with Mary Ann introducing the guests (shell volunteers) and few community members to the day’s event. She also introduced the FTFA staff members and briefed everyone about Food & Trees for Africa.

Solomon Mondlane was the programme Director. He introduced everyone to different groups which were named as; mulch, water, compost, tree and hole.

The groups were also given group leaders being; Solomon, Adam, Megan, Mookho and Emmanuel. Each group leader was given a task to monitor and supervise his/her own group in the planting of trees.

Emmauel did a tree planting demonstration and was helped by Mookho.

Few questions were asked by Emmanuel and the volunteers responded very well.

After a tree planting demonstration, each group started with the planting. Heavy digging was done as the ground was very hard. Each group was required to dig 10 holes for 10 trees on marked spots.

Everyone had fun. Some volunteers were busy digging; some carrying trees; some bringing mulch and some mixing compost and watering the trees. The Impact Kids-children also helped out by stamping around the trees while singing.

By 12 mid-day, 49 trees were planted and 1 was planted by the group from shell without any assistance from FTFA Community Foresters. That marked the end of the days activities. The children ended the day by entertaining everyone by music.

Everything went well. The teachers from the Impact Kids and the children were very happy and appreciated the innitiative by FTFA and Shell. “We really thank FTFA and Shell for this wonderful work.” Said the school Director.

(Heavy digging)

Kundzima Ukuba yindoda!

(Doing for the ladies out there)

(This is my work)