Adopt & Adapt; Plant a tree & save the planet
20/01/2013 – Matale, Sri Lanka: The National Event of the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society’s Tree Planting campaign took place at the Kaikawala Central College in Matale. The event was presided over by the President of SLRCS Jagath Abeysinghe along with the Head of Delegation of IFRC Bob McKerrow, Deputy Director General of SLRCS Sudath Madugalle, Branch Chairman of the Matale Branch Sarath Dassanayake & Programme Coordinator of the German Red Cross Dr. Anthony Gnanamuttu.
The programme was part of the wider tree planting and awareness campaign on Climate change by SLRCS.
During the programme the SLRCS donated 100 plants to the school and requested the children to plant them and also to take care of them.
Meanwhile last week a Media conference was held to announce to the public the launch of this campaign. The story of that event is located below.
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15/01/2013 – Colombo, Sri Lanka: The Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS) supported by the International Federation of Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) & German Red Cross has embarked on a programme to educate, inform and to raise awareness on Climate Change and its impact to Sri Lanka.
The initial step of this broader programme will see the planting of 1250 trees in 130 schools in all 25 districts (5 schools per district & 10 schools in Matale), which got underway today (15th of January 2013). A media conference was organized during the latter part of the day to announce it to the media.
The campaign is aimed at 6th grade school children in the 130 schools who have been given the responsibility of taking care of the plants throughout the year. They are also entrusted to monitor and record the growth of the plant, helping them to understand how the role of trees help to mitigate the effects of climate change.
“If we want to make a change we need to educate our children,” says the President of SLRCS Jagath Abeysinghe. “This is exactly why we chose to plant these trees within school communities. We get to teach the children the importance of safeguarding our environment and also given them a specific responsibility of taking care of it as well”
The SLRCS is committed in finding homegrown solutions towards the impacts of climate change, and are working with communities to strengthen their ability to adapt to the challenges posed by Global Warming. There is a particular focus on disaster preparedness, disaster risk reduction, and improving food security and livelihoods.
“Climate change poses severe threats to child survival and wellbeing, as well as their access to education and protection.” says the Director General of SLRCS Tissa Abeywickrama. “They will face more natural disasters as well as reduced access to water, malnutrition and changing disease patterns. In order to have a sustainable world for our children, we need to be aware that our actions of today will have a critical bearing on the future world that our children will inherit. It is therefore necessary to ensure that our Actions today contribute to a safer, better and greener world for tomorrow.”
Here are some of the posters and leaflets created to raise awareness among the school children island wide.
