In celebration of World Environment Day (June 5), we are happy to share the collective efforts of our global community.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Ushindi Kashali in the DRC tells us “We planted 40 fruit trees to commemorate World Environment Day.” Great work, Ushindi! Follow his Facebook page to see more of his work.

Happy about their trees in the DRC

Jeremy Adeba, our regional coordinator in the DRC, was also part of a tree-planting activity in celebration of World Environment Day. Jeremy gathered his community to plant more than 100 trees to celebrate this special day.

Happy tree-planters in the DRC

India

Dharmendra Kar led the MySchoolMyTree Initiative at SDM School, Mangalore. 500 students joined and took a pledge to #PlantGrowSave a tree by taking #IndividualSocialResponsibility. Check out his website, WAY2ISR, and follow his Facebook page for more details!

Dharmendra (left) at SDM school

Ms. Sandhya Chaugule and her team made a special tree planting for the birthday of Priya Nilkant. Sandhya is the founder and trustee of Hirwai, and you can read more about her inspiring work, here.

Sandhya (center) after planting the tree for Priya.

One of our environmental heroes, the Dalai Lama, also shared a message on World Environment Day: “When I left Tibet as a refugee I had no awareness about environmental issues. In Tibet we could drink any water we saw. It was only in exile that I first heard people say, ‘Oh, this water is polluted – you should not drink it.’ As I gradually met with environmental activists and scientists, I came to realize this is a very, very important issue—it’s a question of our own survival. Many of the earth’s habitats, animals, plants, insects, and even micro-organisms that we know as rare may not be known at all by future generations. We must act to protect the environment before it is too late.”

Thank you for the encouragement and wise words!

The Dalai Lama in Italy, sharing seeds with children

Our global director, Mr. Hans Timpner, is in India at the moment. He said that “World Environment Day caught up with me in Manali in India. I was pleasantly surprised to see the local school children participating in a march to raise awareness of global warming, plastic waste, and yes, the importance of planting trees as well! Good to see the Himalayan folks being active too.”

A picture taken by Hans in Manali

Nigeria

Imam Maiyaki, our Nigerian coordinator, tells us that “As a way of celebrating World Environment Day, we planted 20 Yellow Doranda trees at a community neighborhood in Malali Kaduna state, Nigeria.” You can learn more about Imam’s work through his website, Farmtastic Farms.

A photo shared by Imam

Portugal

Lisbon’s Psychiatric Hospital shares: The Geriatric Psychiatry Service of the Centro Hospitalar Psiquiátrico de Lisboa planted 10 olive trees to mark the way from the entrance of the Hospital to the Service. He dedicated the trees to World Youth Day 2023.

The planted trees were dedicated to Would Youth Day Lisbon 2023.

Zimbabwe

Jussa Kudherezera from Zimbabwe tells us that on this day, the Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe joined the rest of the world by conducting a clean-up activity. Several women and Gender Champions turned up, and pledged to beat plastic pollution in their wards!

Check out Jussa’s project, Manica Youth Assembly, for more details, and visit his Facebook page.

Zimbabwean ladies picking up trash

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A very big thank you to our global community for taking care of our only home, planet earth. We appreciate your hard work and efforts!

If you are inspired by the actions of our global community, let us know by dropping a comment below. You can also let us know what you did for World Environment Day, and inspire others to do the same!