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Neno Youth Clubs in Reafforestation Drive

Youth Club members planting trees Youth Club members planting trees - pic by Steve Kalungwe

Four youth clubs in Neno district on Monday planted various types of trees around the Neno Integrated Youth Development Centre as a way protecting the environment.

The idea is also to mitigate shocks that occur due to climate change factors induced by wanton cutting down of trees.

Addressing the youths, Neno District Youth Officer and Manager for the Centre, Ian Sukali, says the exercise is part of encouraging the young generation to embrace the culture of restoring the forests and instil a sense of ownership of the centre.

"We noticed a gap between management and the youths let alone the surrounding communities; hence, our idea to bring them closer to the centre to learn more thorough this exercise," said Sukali.

The DYO further encouraged the young ones to develop a culture of learning informal skills that would help transform their lives such as poultry farming, tailoring, crop husbandry and ICT that are offered at the centre.

Two youth club chairpersons, Preston Tivane of Tinjoye and Mirriam Gerald of Pam'mawa ndi Achinyamata, say the youth should see forests as a source of income through beekeeping and fruit collection for sale.

"Besides learning various skills at this centre, as youths we must also go into our communities and plant more trees for beekeeping rather than for charcoal business which is disastrous to our environment," said Tinvane.

On the other hand, Mirriam Gerald says youth clubs should take advantage of various trainers present at the centre who can be invited to teach youths various skills for free as the centre cannot accommodate all the youths.

Over 500 fruit trees and one thousand Pine trees have been planted around the area which falls under the Job for Youth initiative.

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