Advocates and Artists: Students design mural for SEED’s first Green School
"Gny Hazo Fiaigna sy Fijintsova Gny Taranaky Fara-mandimby", reads the phrase painted on the side of Emagnevy Primary School, “A tree is planted and harvested for the next generation”. In January 2022, construction began to realise SEED’s first carbon neutral school project, Emagnevy Primary School, located in the rural commune of Mahatalaky. The school is part of SEED’s Project Sekoly Maintso (Malagasy for Green Schools), which aims to offset the carbon emissions produced during school construction and renovation. Looking to involve the students with the project, it was the children themselves who put the last hand to the school. Last year, the seventh and eighth grade students designed a mural to demonstrate the importance of trees for their community, using their hand prints as leaves on the trees. Fast forward one year and the mural can finally be revealed!
One month after construction started, Project Sekoly Maintso (Green School) began work to offset the carbon footprint of the school. The calculated footprint includes construction and repairs of classrooms, latrines, a menstrual hygiene management facility, and a rainwater harvesting system, as well as the transport of materials. Next, the number of trees was calculated considering species, age, and size of the trees. With the help of the local community, 350 Acacia mangium trees were planted in a Carbon Offset plantation near the school. Acacia is a fast-growing resilient tree species, able to withstand the unpredictable weather conditions in Madagascar. The trees will sequester the emitted carbon over a period of 10 years, ensuring that by 2032 Emagnevy Primary School is a carbon neutral project.
To also address local demand for wood, another 350 Acacia trees were planted in a Resource Use plantation, providing the community with trees to rotationally harvest and replant every year. Additionally, 100 fruit trees, including papaya, custard apple, and mandarin trees, were planted near the school to provide a source of nutrition for the students.
Once settled in their new school, Project Coordinator Gerard Haussmann visited the seventh and eighth grade to give a special class on climate change. The students watched a video explaining how trees influence the climate and discussed why it is important to plant and protect them. The class then received a small homework assignment in the form of a drawing contest. Using their imagination, each of the students was asked to draw a picture answering the question: ‘Why are trees important for the environment?’ The best drawing would be used to create the mural on the side of their school.
The student’s drawings turned out to be incredibly creative with many basing their drawings on what they see around them. Below you can see the drawings of two students from the eighth grade. They drew landscapes that show lemurs jumping on trees and tropical forests set against a green mountainous background. Looking closely, you can spot a great variety of trees in the drawings, including a coconut tree, Acacia trees, and various species of palms.
Other students cleverly included elements that show the importance of trees to the rest of the environment: the rains, the rivers, and the lakes that fuel the forest. One of the children even imagined what life would be like without trees, depicting a place with dead trees, no water, and a scorching sun.
With so many good ideas, it turned out to be impossible to choose only one picture. Impressed by the student’s creativity, the team decided to combine the drawings to showcase all their ideas. The final design of the mural shows a world with two possible futures: one where trees are abundant, the crops are growing, and the forest is flourishing, and one future with dead trees, no rains, and no harvest.
Together with the help of the students, the mural was painted on the school in November. The children got to get their hands dirty by painting the leaves on the trees with their hands! Paving the way for a greener future, the pupils of Emagnevy Primary school will forever be reminded to protect the trees, not only for their future, but for many generations of students to come.