A LOCAL organisation, Trees For Zimbabwe AN is set to capacitate rural villages with various types of tree seedlings for planting in a bid to promote afforestation in Zimbabwe.
Trees For Zimbabwe AN is an organisation founded by a pair of single mothers committed to giving back to the community in ways that promote afforestation and reduce the effects of climate change.
One of the founding members, Ms Adrianna Denise van Biljon said the organisation intends to donate various trees to rural areas which are affected by deforestation and poverty.
"Nikki Vernon is a founding member of the group and together we came up with the idea of planting any type of trees in Zimbabwe which we could find so as part of our charity work we want to start planting trees at homesteads in Ntabazinduna sometime in January next year.
"This is because they are struggling and the moringa tree can be helpful there because of its high nutritious and medicinal value. Under every Moringa tree we will also plant herb plants and a few vegetable seeds to provide food," said Ms Van Biljon.
She said the organisation was looking for sponsorship in Europe through an online shopping site where they sell trees and the money goes into the planting and growing of more trees in the country.
"Nikki Vernon has been looking for sponsorship in Europe on a platform called eBay where we sell one moringa tree for US$1 so a buyer will buy and sponsor the tree for someone here in Zimbabwe to plant and also give seedlings to someone else. We have managed to sell 26 trees on eBay over the past two weeks which has gone on to help us buy bags and seeds and I have managed to plant 500 seeds over the past week," she said.
Ms Van Biljon said if the project grows, they intend to plant trees at local schools in Bulawayo.
"Currently our resources are inadequate but after Ntabazinduna we hope the project will grow and we can get more volunteers involved and manage to get a plot to plant more trees. If the project grows, we will be able to target local schools here in Bulawayo."
She also said they have received donations of moringa seeds and cuttings from around Zimbabwe as well as from South Africa.
"We have people sending us Moringa seeds and cuttings from Harare, Gweru and neighbouring countries such as South Africa, so we have established a network of like-minded people who want to promote afforestation," she said
