The Sunday News
Belinda Moyo and Thandeka Matebesi
The Rotary Club of Matopos has embarked on a fruit tree planting initiative aimed at complementing Government efforts of ensuring food security.
The club planted 40 assorted fruit trees at Ingutsheni Central hospital on Wednesday and is set to plant more trees at all Bulawayo hospitals with a target of 1.2 million trees before the end of the year.
Driven by this year’s theme “Be an inspiration” the district governor for the Rotary Clubs (Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi), Engineer Hutchson Mthinda, said they wanted to inspire people to engage in sustainable projects and desist from the dependency syndrome.
“The main idea behind this initiative is to complement the Government on food security. Matopos Rotary Club saw a need at Ingutsheni Central Hospital and brought groceries to help. However, the food will not sustain them so we also taught and trained the institution to produce food by planting fruit trees,” said Eng Mthinda.
Speaking on the sidelines of the event, the president of the Matopos Rotary Club, Mrs Delight Majola-Munenekwa said the programme was also a mental awareness campaign.
“This project is a mental awareness campaign and also to encourage sustenance of the environment. Rotary International set a goal of planting 1.9 million trees, an afforestation initiative aimed at mitigating effects of climate change,” said Mrs Majola-Munenekwa.
We have partnered with Ingutsheni Hospital, the Forestry Commission of Zimbabwe and we are seeking other strategic partners to curb climate change threats in food security.”
