Students at the Divine Mercy Primary School at Malololelei have planted 300 trees as part of their Literacy Week programme, led by the Salesian sisters.

The tree planting exercise was done in partnership with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (M.N.R.E) on Wednesday last week.

Divine Mercy School Principal, Salesian Sister Sovita, said they are following a book written by Pope Francis titled "Laudato si", which according to her means “praise be to God.”

She said the phrase refers to the environment and how humans care for mankind’s common home which is the planet earth. It also shows the school's ongoing dedication to the Don Bosco Green Alliance.

“That was one of the programmes for our Literacy Week,” she added.

Excited students gather around a tree they just planted!

The seedlings were provided by the M.N.R.E. which were planted by the students on a reserve next to the school and is their contribution to the Government’s Two Million Trees Campaign.

Sister Sovita added that their goal was to teach their students how to plant trees and "care for our common home", which is like rebuilding our environment.

According to her, over 100 students from Grade 5-8 took part in the tree planting event last week with the students excited about the tree planting event.

“So inform them if they ever need help with something like cleaning up, planting trees, our school is ready to give a hand with that,” she said.

Sister Sovita emphasised that it is important to teach young people, especially about climate change and she thinks that the easiest way for them to learn is to get them out to do the work themselves.