Hearts of Green Profile

PROFILE

PROFILE

www.heartsofgreen.org

ABOUT US

Heart of Green Movement is a registered

Our Vision

NGO in Kenya that aims to conserve the

To be a renowned organisation that

environment through students in Primary,

champions sustainable environmental

Secondary schools and institutions of

conservation.

higher learning. We believe in teaching the young generations the virtues of conserving

Our Mission

the environment by adopting a tree model

Improve our environment for equitable

and in future they will grow to be global benefit of present and future generations. ambassadors of environment conservation.

Address: Astol office suites, along Thika Road P.O. BOX 1788 - 00606, Nairobi, Kenya Mobile: +254 774 355 438 Email: info@heartsofgreen.org Website: www.heartsofgreen.org

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ADOPT A TREE Hearts of Green employs an innovative model of “Adopt A Tree� for each student attending any given Primary School, Secondary school and public institutions of higher learning in Kenya. In this model we teach the student to be accountable, hardworking and have a sense of ownership on the need to conserve the environment. Each student is given two trees where they plant one at school and the other at home and if they cannot plant at they do so at any public institution like hospital, police station or any public ground.

The tree planting exercise start by inclass training on the need for environmental conservation, the effects of global warming and how each can make a difference in the process. The school acts as the model demonstration centers where tree species will be taught. The student is expected to take care of their adopted tree by watering, gardening until when the tree can survive their its own. To make the students to better realize the benefit of environment in the adopt a tree model we give both wood and fruit trees.

WHY IT MATTERS Cultivating a behavior while young is the easiest way to instill a virtue. Using the Adopt A Tree approach at school provides the student the opportunity to learn to be accountable and have sense of ownership on the need to conserve the environment.

By being a hands approach model the adopt a tree is a real-life experimental ground for student to become part and parcel of climate change solution.

With Adopt A Tree each student becomes a climate change ambassador and advocate of climate change.

By giving each student two trees to take care of at home and at school, the organisation believes the student will be accountable and have a sense of ownership on environmental

conservation

and

hopefully they can be agent of change to other family members in their household.

Adopt A Tree model gives a wood and fruit tree, there is nothing better than a child picking a fruit from a tree they have keenly taken care of. Whenever they pick a fruit it will help in them realizing the benefit which can be drawn from trees and also improve their health.

Hearts of Green will be awarding students who have well taken care of their trees at school and at home or public institution. This will create a healthy competition among the student. Student who take part in hearts of Green will contribute to healthy food system in their community.

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ABSTRACT Kenya has been experiencing dramatic change in weather pattern in the last decade with drought famine becoming a yearly phenomenon with the worst drought being in year 2011,2017 and 2019. Kenya has been losing about 5000 hectares of the forest cover with its total forest cover being 7.4% against the acceptable global minimum of 10%.

With drought and famine becoming common phenomenon there is a need for a far more concerted approach on conserving the forest by developing this culture at young age.

In order to achieve long term solutions, we believe that a sustained environmental education program will help the new generations think differently about environmental conservation.

The Hearts of Green movement aims to bring up the next 1 million environment ambassadors in the next 10 years using “Adopt A Tree model” in the public learning institution. The movement has so far reached 10 primary schools and planted over 2000 trees of indigenous, fruit and wood trees. However, the organisation has solely been relying on members contributions to fund its activities hence limiting the number of institutions reached.

By “Adopt A Tree Model”, Hearts of Green aims to give each student in learning institution two trees. One tree to be planted at school and the other at home. This will create more awareness at school and household level. We believe “Adopt A Tree” has a trickle-down effect and will instil the virtue of environment conservation. We believe Students learn better by acting and no better way than promoting tree planting at schools, public institutions and at home. The best taken care of tree will win the student an award.

We are convinced that there is a need to enrich the society with student who are agents of climate change and are empowered to make a difference.

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BACKGROUND Kenya forest cover has been decreasing at an alarming rate with about 50,000 hectares lost so far in the one decade (Ministry of Environment and Forestry 2018, Resource management and Logging Activities task force report) . The old environmental and wildlife clubs where champions of nature conservation were natured mainly no longer exists in public institutions and even if they do they are dormant. Kenya population has been growing at estimated rate 2.5% per annum. This boom in population growth has exerted pressure on the environment with the need for construction space, food, construction materials and extraction of natural resources for economic growth of the country.

The problem of environmental degradation has been fighting back with Kenya experiencing the severe drought in 2017 leading to it being declared a national disaster.

However there has been no serious concerted efforts by key stakeholders on the best way to take care of the environment with focus mainly being on water conservation by construction of dams and water pans. The main question has been where will this water come from since the water towers especially the mountains are losing the forest cover by 5000 hectares per annum (Ministry of environment 2018 task force report)

In our opinion, there has been missing key elements in the conservation efforts in Kenya in order to achieve long term solutions: hands-on environmental education.

Without

proper hands on education there will be minimal success on the environmental conservation in Kenya and Africa as whole. Droughts and famine will replace the annual prediction of when the long and short rains would set in.

However, we believe all is not lost, with a sustained environmental education program, the new generation will think differently about their environment and raise a generation of global climate ambassadors. This component has been missing heavily on most conservation effort with some of the intervention focusing on elderly population for commercial activities e g planting trees for selling electricity poles and commercial fruits. This project aims to improve the situation using bottom up approach. Meaning, we will start working with students in order to; 8

1. create awareness on the importance of environmental conservation 2. Raise a generation/ movement of environment ambassadors who have environment conservation at heart.

In other words, we will build a new generation of environmental change makers with “Hearts of Green”

After a year of tree planting, the organisation has initiated the “Adopt A Tree” programme with an aim of reaching 3.5 million students enrolled in the primary schools, secondary schools and all the public institutions of higher learning within 10 years. The best way to learn is by acting, the organisation will start a process in which it promotes the planting of trees on farms, public areas and river basins.

AIM AND SCOPE The “Adopt A Tree� programme will get students involved directly in conservation efforts.

We believe this will lead to the revival of the environment and wildlife clubs in learning institutions as well which were previous critical in nurturing environmentally conscious generation. These hands-on activities, especially reforestation, will be performed as normal activities in Primary Schools, Secondary school and all public institutions of higher learning. Prior training on the different tree species and how to care for them will be conducted inorder to provide students with a more experiential understanding.

In the short-term, Hearts of Green will network with other non-profit organizations and government agencies to acquire 100,000 trees to be planted by students in the course of the year. Later, these students will be responsible for nurturing and protecting these trees until they are big enough to survive. Our aim is for the students to be part of environmental conservation by reforestation, and also being an example for the rest of their family and the whole community.

In the long term, we aim to work in partnership with the government institutions and local CBO for provision of seeds. Students will plant nursery beds, water and nature these seedlings at the institution of learning. Hearts of Green will then train the student on the best transplanting procedures and this will ensure they have the handson experience needed. This will more so create a sense of ownership and accountability of the programme from the start to the end by the student.

Students who emerge the best in taking care of nursery beds and trees will be given awards and enrolled as global climate change ambassadors of Hearts of Green. In the Hearts of Green Climate change ambassador’s platform students and experts will meet to discuss and engage government and climate change agents on the best practices on environment conservation. Hearts of Green believe these Hearst of Green climate change ambassadors when they transition from one level of education to another they will continue to advocate for environment conservation, revive environment clubs in the which will be supported by being given trees by Hearts of Green to plant in their institution compound. Even when the ambassadors graduate from institutions of higher learning we believe they will serve as better examples to the communities and work places where even if they do not have open spaces for tree planting they can display messages which encourages tree planting and environmental conservation.

With Adopt A Tree programme we are convinced that there is a need to enrich society with students who are agents of community development, empowered to make a change.

Specific targets Within the next one year we aim at: • 200 Primary Schools receive environmental education and engage in hands on environmental education activities on tree planting with each student in school, planting two trees • 150,00 students to plant 2 trees a fruit tree and indigenous tree

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METHODOLOGY The major goals for environmental education are “to provide every person with opportunities to acquire the knowledge, attitudes, commitment and skills needed to protect and improve the environment� (UNESCO, 1978, p.26). Hearts of Green aims at doing things differently and learning from where others previous trial have failed.

Sustainability, sense of ownership and accountability have been the major challenges which have failed previous environment conservation attempts. To accomplish that our goal of planting over 100,000 trees each year we will:

Adopt A Tree Model Each student in institution of learning will be encouraged to adopt minimum two trees in which one will be planted at the school and the other home or public institution of choice. These trees will be provided for free by Hearts of Green. To increase the ownership of the programme one of the trees given to the student must be a fruit tree and the students will be encouraged to be plant it at home where the whole family can enjoy and also reap the benefits of environment conservation. By Adopt A Tree a student will be responsible for watering, weeding, pruning and general care of their own tree. This approach creates of competition of working towards having the healthiest tree in the class and institution.

A record will be maintained at the school and shared with Hearts of Green on the status of the tree in each school.

Practical Hands-on Lessons 200 schools will receive environmental education lessons from a trained environmentalist and Kenya Forest Services personnel. These lessons will be focus on providing practical knowledge about the importance of the environment conservation. We will examine major environmental issues from a local, national and international point of view drawing the most lessons easily relatable scenarios in Kenyan context like the famine, healthy nation etc

Timing When and which species of tree to plant is key in achieving the global set minimum 13

target of 10% forest cover. In order to increase the chance of most trees surviving with minimum need for watering, tree planting will take place during the rainy season i.e. in the month of April, May, September, October, November. This timing will allow the trees to mature to a level where they no longer need constant watering. During the dry season the students will mulch the trees with grass and water them once a week. Bottle irrigation will also be adopted as one best solution for watering the trees when students go on holiday or in areas where water access is a challenge.

Tree species.

Hearts of Green will mainly focus on planting indigenous trees and fruit trees. Each student will be given both tree species and encouraged to plant the indigenous tree at institution of learning and the fruit tree at home or public institution like hospital, churches or public grounds. Hearts of Green has well trained Kenya Forest Service officer who is advising on the different tree species to plant in different location due to different climatic conditions and adoptability of trees.

The tree species given will be carefully selected by well trained programme officers.

School Environmental Clubs Revive the environment clubs in school, we believe with revival of these clubs there will be more sustainability of the concerted effort of environment conservation. The clubs will be meeting bi-weekly to evaluate the progress of the trees given by Hearts of Green and their patron who is one of the teachers at the learning institution will be facilitated to give reports. We believe these clubs will in turn create a culture of team work, self- organization and social agents of change.

Adopt A Tree Awards Students that excel in taking care of their trees will participate in exchanges and trips in order to talk to students to motivate each other in being agents of climate change. • Hearts of Green Programme officer will be moving around the schools to evaluate the progress of the tree planted and the performance of the environmental clubs in taking part in other environmental conservation activities. • Student with best tree in each class will be enrolled to the Hearts of Green Global 14

environment ambassador platform. The platform will be where engagement on the best practices for environment conservation will take place. The student will be invited to forums where government and environment conservation stakeholders will be meeting to discuss issues that affect the environment.

Monitoring School Patrons Each school in which Hearts of Green will plant trees will have a teacher who will act as patron and the main link between the student and the organizations. The teacher will provide bi-weekly and monthly report on the performance of the trees planted or nursery beds. They will update on.

A. numbers of trees still surviving B. number of dried up, number C. Number of uprooted/stolen

Programme Officer Hearts of Green programme officer will regularly on a monthly basis visit institution where tree has been planted to evaluate their progress. The officer will make recommendations for schools or public institutions that needs more support on how well to care of the trees and nursery beds or those which need more trees to plant. A monitoring system has been set-up to monitor the progress of each tree planted. This will increase accountability and ownership since the “Adopt a tree� model place the responsibility of taking care of the tree on the student.

The monitoring system will be used to generate the student who will receive awards from Hearts of Green

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HEARTS OF GREEN’S ADO ACTIVITY

JAN

Phase 1 School Identification Networking with NGO and Govt Agencies for trees

Acquisition of trees and seedlings Primary

Schools

Tree

planting exercise Monitoring

seedlings

performance

Awards

Phase 2 School Identification Acquisition of trees and seedlings Primary

Schools

Tree

planting exercise Monitoring performance Awards

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seedlings

FEB

MAR

APR

MAY JUN

JUL

AUG

OPT A TREE WORK PLAN

G

SEP

OCT

NOV

DEC

JAN

TARGETS

200 schools

a. NGO or Government agencies in each region where Hearts of Green work b. Cheap seedlings ready for planting 10,000 seedlings

Plant 10,000 seedlings

Visit all the 200 schools and assess the progress of the trees.

Receive weekly and monthly report from 200 schools Awards 1-2 student from each school with a medal and other gifts for having the best tree

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