Faith Ndlovu, Sunday Life Reporter
IN a unique and eco-friendly way to mark her 18th birthday, an environmentally conscious Simelweyinkosi Masuku left a lasting legacy at a private school in Hopelyn suburb when she combined her passion for nature and philanthropy, planting 18 trees in honour of her birthday.
The exercise was also meant to highlight the increasing importance of trees in the face of climate change.
All in all, she planted 40 trees at the school, 18 for her birthday and the other 22 for a demonstration of the tree planting exercise to more than 100 school children.
She also taught them the importance of greening the environment in a “catch them young” approach to good habits.
Simelweyinkosi who is the director of One Planet Trust comes from a tree-planting family where her grandfather, Mr Solomon Masuku planted many trees when he was working for the Bulawayo City Council’s parks department.
Her father, Mr Kheyi Masuku has also planted thousands of trees in and around Bulawayo and across the country.
She said she started appreciating the environment at a very young age, planting a Waterbury tree at a church’s tree planting programme that was led by her father in Thorngrove, in 2012.
“I cried to go with my father and he went with me and assisted me in planting the tree. My dream is to plant the biggest number of trees to those planted by my grandfather and father,” she said.
She chose to celebrate her birthday by planting trees as a way of demonstrating to the youths how impactful they can be to the environment if they chose to be.She said her organisation was ready to support children who want to make a difference in the environment that they live in by providing trees for planting when celebrating their birthdays.
“Children spend more time playing, which easily pulls them to drugs, substance abuse and other bad behaviour. If this programme gets the support that I think it deserves, it will help us in fighting not only bad behaviour in the youths but the climate change phenomenon, which is causing untold suffering to humanity across the globe,” she said.
Simelweyinkosi said the learners and the teachers at Once Upon a Child Primary School were excited about the whole exercise.
“The tree planting programme went very well with children asking for support. Everyone was excited as the trees totally changed the school environment,” she said.
Simelweyinkosi Masuku waters a tree she planted at the school on the occasion of her 18th birthday
Director of the school, Mr Mathamsanqa Dube said they were overly gratified by Simelweyinkosi’s gesture adding that they will take care of the trees as they have shown commitment to keeping the environment green.
“OUAC students enjoyed the birthday celebration. They were taught by a young girl who is enthusiastic to share her values and her commitment towards nature. We need more young people like Miss Masuku who can spread the word about the importance of the natural environment through her practical work. The planting of trees will help sustain the ecosystem. This birthday was one of a kind that honoured the value of God-given nature,” said Mr Dube.
Simelweyinkosi is hoping to have a big tree nursery where all children in Bulawayo can be given a chance to plant trees, from the age of nine to 18 as part of her afforestation initiative that also keeps the youths busy and sway them from ill-behaviour.
Her work has, however, not been easy as she is facing challenges in running her nursery.
“I would say the biggest challenge is that of water to keep the nursery going. Water is scarce and I am appealing to any interested stakeholder to assist me with a solution. I also desire to have the area where my nursery is fenced, but I can’t afford to buy the fence. I also need nursery infrastructure, sheds, topsoil and planting pockets, among other things,” she said.
She said she is kindly requesting for a borehole to be drilled because some of her trees are drying up due to lack of water.
“I appeal to the corporate world and to organisations who are passionate about the environment to support this great programme involving young people who are eager to fight deforestation, which is another contributor to climate change.
“My organisation wishes to have planted 10 million trees around Bulawayo by the year 2030 but this can only be possible if stakeholders such as BCC and Government agencies in charge of the environment are willing to go on the ground and play ball and not just pay lip-service,” she said.