Ole Sapit kicks off one student one tree campaign

ACK Archbishop Jackson ole Sapit plants a tree when he visited St Luke ACK church in Nakuru. The Anglican church tree planting campaign targets to plant 15 million trees. [File, Standard]

Anglican Church of Kenya led by Archbishop Jackson ole Sapit has kicked off a tree planting campaign dubbed one student one tree.

Ole Sapit said that the campaign involving students from ACK sponsored schools targets to plant 15 million trees.

He revealed that the initiative has been sponsored by partners like Equity and DTB Bank, among others.

“We want to establish a movement called Green Anglican movement and we have partners on board. This initiative targets to plant 15 million trees. We shall involve our learners in Anglican sponsored schools to help us realise this dream. We shall as well mobilise our Christians to plant trees in the Green Anglican movement,” he said.

The Anglican Church Archbishop welcomed other churches and denominations to join hands and help plant trees as partners of the campaign.

“God has created this universe and his intensions were that all the creation work together, some creations like the trees are on the universe, we have other creation in the air including the oxygen that we breath and which is purified by the trees as they suck in carbon, we have others up there like the lightening and clouds, they work to make this world a better place,” Ole Sapit said.

“It is sad that man, the superior being in the world and the universe has through his lack of wisdom destroyed trees that are otherwise life supporters. Man has depleted forest covers by cutting down trees for burning charcoal, looking for firewood, and in bid to create other developments,” he said.

“We have continuously and steadily destroyed trees, depleting forest cover to under ten percent, it is trees and other plantations that give us tubers that we eat, some give us fruits which supply our bodies with vitamins, trees give us shade that we enjoy, in short trees are our everything. It is regrettable that man who should be the steward and manager of the trees and universe, has turned against them, this has greatly impacted negatively on the world order.”

Limuru Girls chief principal Susan Kariuki, said that the school community was elated for being the place where the one student one tree campaign kicked off.

“We are committed to this endeavor and we will ensure that every girl’s seedling will be tagged with personal details for identity, ownership and posterity, we are now proud co creators with God we embrace and adopt an environmentally conscious life style and make choices that minimise destruction of mother earth,” Kariuki said.

She noted that as the students plant more than 1000 seedlings in the vast school land, they envisage that years to come, the school forest will enhance the much needed biodiversity.
“As we shine academically, we promise to hold on to and propagate what the Anglican church and the Archbishop have started,” she said.

Ole Sapit joined students, teachers and subordinate staff in planting trees in the school compound and the school forest.

The Green Anglican tree planting campaign comes months after President William Ruto kicked off the national tree planting initiative that targets to plant 15 billion trees in Kenya by 2032 in a bid to increase tree cover by 30 per cent, reduce green house emissions and restore degraded landscapes in the country, improve livelihoods and reverse deforestation.