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Trees for Peace: The Global Campaign for the Children of Ukraine
Trees for Peace: The Global Campaign for the Children of Ukraine
Campaign Overview
A global campaign for children of Ukraine conducted and spearheaded by children from around the world. The purpose of the campaign, building on the spirit of Ubuntu (“I am because we are”), is to dramatize the plight of Ukrainian children and mobilize the global community to raise funds and stand in solidarity with them.
African children from current or former war-torn countries will take the moral lead symbolizing the solidarity of the people of Africa with the people of Ukraine.
At the core of the campaign is a call to all children from around the world to plant “Trees for Peace” for Ukraine. Tree planting symbolizes renewal, hope for the future, and responsible stewardship of the planet. It seeks to empower children and adolescents to combat climate change and protect the environment while standing up in solidarity, in the spirit of Ubuntu, with the children of Ukraine.
The global campaign will be managed by a professional team and its activities externally audited. To ensure effective implementation of projects, funds will be donated to existing organizations with a proven track-record in Ukraine. Humanitarian work will focus on supporting children of Ukraine’s “fallen heroes,” providing psychological therapies to children and their families traumatized by the war, rebuilding and equipping schools and playgrounds, growing intellectual capital within Ukraine by supporting the educational development of high-performing students, and helping address the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children.
In addition to supporting humanitarian work for children in Ukraine, the campaign will also create important digital links between schools in Ukraine and schools around the world. These links will allow connections made during the campaign to endure and to be reoriented in the future so that a lasting global movement of children acting in solidarity with one another other will be born.
Tree Planting Campaign
The Trees for Peace will be planted in cities and peri-urban areas, among smallholder farmers, in rural areas, in denuded and degraded land, replanting trees on the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro, and as part of the 4,750 miles of the Great Green Wall of Africa, jointly built by 21 African countries as a barrier against the Sahara Desert. The tree planting campaign will rely on experts and organizations with expertise in tree planting and environmental campaigns to refine and oversee the tree planting campaign so that it is easy to execute and sustain and successful within the framework of the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) stated in the 2030 Agenda. This aspect of the campaign will be guided and led by leading environmental organizations such as the Kenya-based Greenbelt Movement, founded by 2004 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Professor Wangari Maathai.
Lead Role for African Children
The initial stage of the campaign will be led by African children who survived armed conflicts from war-torn and post-conflict countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), South Sudan, Liberia, Somalia,Cameroon, Mali, Sierra Leone, Libya, Ethiopia, Central African Republic, Uganda, and Mozambique.
