10,000 Trees Planted - Kasewe Rain Forest Nature Reserve, Moyamba

Orange Sierra Leone received a partnership letter from the Ministry of environment and climate change, for the restoration of the Kasewe rain forest reserve, which is a water source for two rivers in Moyamba district. The Kasewe forest in between three chiefdom, Fakunya, Kori and Yoni. Orange as a responsible cooperate institution reviewing the proposal and its importance to the communities and also contributing to offseting emission and protecting and preserving the environment. The proposal is to plant and grow ten thousand trees (10,000). In support to ensuring a successful project implementation OSL supported the ministry with two hundred thousand leones ( Nle 200,000) to cover expenses for the project.

COMMUNITY STAKEHOLDERS ENGAGEMENT:

For a successful and sustainable project implementation, community stakeholders engagement is very important, explaining the clear picture of the project and its importance and how the community contribution will contribute to a successful project. The community stakeholders engagement was held on the 24th July 2024.

The engagement started with prayers from both muslims and christians. Representative from the three chiefdom were present, including the Paramount chief of Fakunya. The moyamba district chief administrator was also in attendance and the Security personnel (Police) were all represented. Traditional leaders, youth representative and women’s group were all present. In her Statement, the chair preson mede mention of the past flooding activities which occured in freetown as a caurse of climate change issues. Representative from the ministry of environment and climate change were the deputy director (Sahr Kellie) and assistance deputy ( Amus Kamara) director and the assistance forestry officer (Nyakeh Dugba) moyamba district.

TRAINING ON TREE PLANTING, SPACING AND DEPT: Training of volunteers on tree planting, spacing and the dept for each selected species was organized by the ministry to train volunteers for a successful planting and growing. This was held on the 25th July 2024.

TREE PLANTING DAY: After employees had volunteer through the engage for change platform to volunteered and contribute in the planting of the 10,000 trees at Kasewe. Employees were asked to converged at the company head quarter for the trip to Moyamba, Kasewe rain forest restoration tree planting. Over 50 employees volunteered and planted more than 5000 trees on 2nd August 2024. Even though the weather was a bit disturbing, employees volunteered to plant in the rain which was important for the success of the tree planting. A delegation from the ministry of environment and climate change including the minister (Gewoh Abdulai), director of forestry ( Kate Garnet) and other staff were present to plant trees. Orange CEO (Shekou Amadu Bah) general secretary (Danetta Younge) CTO (Sylvanus R. Sowyer) were all present and contributed to the tree planting.