NGO Distributes Seedlings To Schools At Pokuasi

Comprehensive Action for Poverty Reduction (CAPRE), an NGO in afforestation, environment, health sanitation and poverty reduction, has distributed seedlings to some selected schools at Pokuasi in the Greater Region, as part of its objectives of greening Ghana and restoring the environment.

The presentation was preceded by an education on the need to plant trees, keep the environment clean and maintain healthy lifestyles. The education also centered on climate change and its effects on human and animal life.

Making the presentation, Mr. Joseph Amoako, one of the Directors of CAPRE and a forester, who led the CAPRE team, emphasized the need for Ghanaians to plant more trees to save the environment from further depletion. He noted that, in spite of much talk about global warming, very little is being done to salvage the situation, asking, “How many of us have planted trees in the past five years?”

He said the choice of Pokuasi for the tree-planting exercise stems from the observation made by CAPRE that the township is fast losing its vegetation due to the activities of individuals and estate developers who are cutting trees at alarming rate to build houses.

He went on to say that CAPRE would soon embark on a massive tree-planting exercise in the town to restore its vegetation and save it from an imminent environmental crisis. The exercise, he said, would involve distribution of seedlings to schools and residents and an education programme in schools and on local radio.

Mr. Amoako indicated that if Ghanaians do not rise up to tackle issues of climate change, “we would wake up one day to realize that we have nothing left of our environment” .

The beneficiary schools are Pokuasi Basic Methodist 1 Primary School, Pokuasi Basic Methodist 2 Primary School, Nii Otto Kwame III Primary, Pokuasi Municipal Assembly (MA) 1 Junior High School, Pokuasi Municipal Assembly (MA) 2 High School.

The Headmaster of the Pokuasi Municipal Assembly Junior High School, Mr. Kevin King, thanked CAPRE for the gesture and urged other organizations to follow suit. He encouraged the organization to consider replicating the gesture in the whole town.

Comprehensive Action for Poverty Reduction (CAPRE) was founded in 2008 but received its certificate in 2009. It is currently undertaking a tree-planting exercise in five regions in the country, involving some fifty communities. So far, over one hundred thousand (100,000) seedlings have been distributed.

The organization has also set up a nursery in Accra, with some ten thousand (10,000) seedlings waiting to be transplanted.