From Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
Rotary Club of Makurdi on Thursday embarked on a tree planting project at the NKST Secondary School, Naka Road Makurdi, the Benue State capital as part of its efforts to ensure a green and healthy environment for all.
Speaking in a chat with our correspondents shortly after leading members of the Club to plant trees at the school, President, Rotary Club of Makurdi, Mrs. Joyce Tarka, said the Rotary International took the initiative to plant trees this year as its own little way of positively impacting on the environment.
“The world is collapsing as a result of the depletion of the ozone layer. This is because we are no longer appreciating what God did and we are cutting down trees and there’s so much heat around.
“This is what Rotary International wants us to do and we are doing it. Rotary has seven areas of focus and one of them is eco friendliness.
“So, by planting these trees, we are making the environment conducive for humans to live in. You know that we take in oxygen and breath out carbon dioxide, and when there are no trees, the air is so harsh.
“When we take out carbon dioxide, the trees absorb it and give us more freshness. We are doing this to keep the environment clean, take care of our health and to obey the law of ecofriendliness.
She explained further that Rotary Club of Makurdi chose a school environment for the tree planting project to give the students enough opportunity to know the benefits of tree planting.
“We want to also use the opportunity to encourage the students and teach them to be eco friendly,” Tarka said
She disclosed that the project monitoring it unit of Rotary International would continue to monitor the growth of the trees and ensure that they don’t die off so that the purpose for which they were planted in the first place is achieved.
“Rotary International has a project monitoring corps that monitors all the projects so that they don’t waste but are sustained for a long time and ensure that the purpose for which they are carried out are achieved.”