Trees of Hope Project

Green action

72 saplings in lockdown!

In 2019, our Association, QLS-Quality in Language Services, decided to incorporate ENVIRONMENTAL LITERACY in our schools’ curricula. Our first project was the TREES of HOPE involving tree-planting in several regions of Greece by our member schools.

In our school, EDUCATIONAL DYNAMICS, we made all preparations: contact the Forestry Department of the Cyclades, have our application for saplings approved, have 72 forest trees sent to us from Paros’s Trees Nursery, and find the location for our event. We had a poster and a logo designed. Fifty students registered for this event adopting a tree each. All was set.

On 10th March 2020, due to the pandemic Covid-19, the government ordered a lockdown! Our school had to close and all events had to be cancelled! The event had been scheduled for 15th March! Our students with their parents would participate in this celebration of the TREES of HOPE: tree-planting, on-site lessons, talks by the Forestry Dept. Officials on a full-day excursion. Disaster!

Our saplings were suffocating at the transport agency. 72 holes drilled in that rocky hill slope by a Municipal Service were waiting! We could not go out without official permission and not for this reason!

I contacted a man who had been involved in the initial stage trying to work out a solution. ”Don´t worry, Mrs. Eugenia”, he said, ”Í will plant them.” Incredible! I knew he had helped plant over 700 saplings a few years before in that area of St. Methodios and Kyrillos. I also knew how sad he was after two disastrous fires in that area where he kept his bees.

Eventually he planted all 72 trees. I contacted him. Are the trees good? Are they thriving? Yes, they were. He sent me a photo. Six months later, I visited the site to find out that two men had planted our trees: Mr. Manolis Roussounelos and Mr Vaggelis Alexiou. I felt so grateful!