Country: Uganda

Organization: Enhancing the Education of the Girl-Child programmes (ENEGICP)

3) Strategy Summary:
Educating the girl child through tree planting aims at supplementing the available means of educating the girl child. The approach is to plant trees that are harvested, sold and money used for paying school fees for the girl child.

4) How the Strategy Works:

• The traditional method of sponsoring only clever girls is not the best. So, parents who have land should plant timber, fruit trees or both.

• Tree planting has advantages over other projects because trees need little care, they are cheap, their products have ready market, unlike chicken, cattle that need feeding, medical care, etc. Besides, they protect the environment.

• The method that will be used is to identify parents with land where they can grow trees for the girl child. These will be given seeds and trained how to plant them. The girl children must participate.

• Quick maturing trees should be planted, and in our case, we have identified Eucalyptus trees which can be harvested at 18 months of age, as building poles. These trees bring many branches after harvesting which are thinned and only 3 to 4 are left. These are harvested after 18 months and the process continues for over 60 years.

• My father has told me that one acre of Eucalyptus woodlot can generate enough money to educate the girl child from primary school up to the University, if the money is banked.

• Programmes will be put on Radio Stations and I have so far conducted 3 programmes in December 2004 holiday for children especially the girl child.

• A bank account in the name of the girl child should be opened, and all money from the sales should be banked on it. This will enable the girl child to be responsible. Ten percent of the sales will be remitted on a centralised account of UNEGIP.

• After completing her education, the money that will be generated from pole sales will be used for purchase of land by the girl child (now a woman) so that she also owns land.

• UNEGICP will train the farmers within this project. Already, I have bought 50 Kg of Eucalyptus seeds that will be given to 200 "girl child" parents and each will be capable of planting 20,000 trees. Family labour will be used.

• The supervision of this project will be done by ENEGICP executive, since I am at school, but I will be helping when I come back during holidays.
• At school, similar projects will be designed so that children also learn tree planting as a way of educating the girl child.