Students from Kalatile Primary School show off their tree seedlings during the GIC M&E exercise.

A young boy secures the straps of his school bag as he waters young mukau seedlings in the school compound. His classmate, a young girl of class six, checks the fencing around the ploughed plot. She knows that goats will do anything to reach the succulent leaves of the young trees. Satisfied, they both leave for their homes, confident that they are on the right track in their tree planting project. After all, the school’s “green teacher” has regularly guided them on best tree planting practices.

Over the past few months, students from the 120 schools participating in the School’s Green Initiative Challenge (GIC) expansion project have been busy setting up their woodlots and nurturing their seedlings in the tree planting competition within the three counties of Kitui, Embu and Machakos districts.

Last week, the GIC expansion project Technical Committee comprising of staff from KenGen Foundation, KenGen, Better Globe Forestry Limited, and Bamburi Cement Limited undertook the first joint monitoring and evaluation exercise to assess the progress of the afforestation competition by visiting different schools within the participating counties.