Companies set out to green Mshadza school

Several trees were planted at Mshadza Secondary School in Phola during the recently celebrated Arbor Week.

For the past five years Estelle Roe and her team from Junxion Communication have organised tree-planting events at schools in the Lowveld area.

It offers the opportunity for several companies to make a contribution towards offsetting carbon emissions. “Each and every business has a carbon footprint due to vehicles on the road for representatives and deliveries, computer and electricity usage and so on.

Planting just a tree or two definitely does not totally offset our carbon emissions, but it is a token of our awareness that we do take from the environment,” Roe said. “This is an attempt to acknowledge it and put something back into the environment and, at the same time, give back to our local communities in the process.”

The trees were planted for shade and future fruit for the children. A few minutes were spent to educate the learners about the importance of trees to the environment and within the community.

They were also encouraged to take the message home and ensure the trees were protected.

The Lions Club donated most of the trees, which included African tulip for shade as well as citrus trees for fruit.

In addition to the nearly 20 trees planted at the school, a further 50 were donated to churches and community centres in the area.

Companies that participated included Junxion, Bagdad Centre, Swift Group, Lions Club, Heidel Eggs, Hi-Tech, Premier Hotel the Winkler, Liberty, FNB, Faith from Meridian Karino, BUCO, Fine & Country, Brenda from Performance by Design, Precision Media and Tshepiso Phosa together with Milviforce and MobiGo as well as Lowveld Coffee, which provided some delicious coffee at the event.

Mshadza’s principal, Norman Nkosi, and the circuit head of the Department of Education expressed their appreciaton for the efforts and promised to care for the trees to the best of their ability.