Plant-for-the-Planet Academy Maseru (Lesotho), 26 July 2011

A real highlight of our trip was the Academy in Maseru. With just 40,000 inhabitants this is probably one of the smallest capitals in any country. Lesotho is one of the so called “Less economically developed countries (LECD-Countries)”, meaning that it is one of the poorest countries in the world.

The children in Lesotho have recommended to the Cabinet that they bring one of the children with them to Durban for the COP17 and allow them to speak on behalf of Lesotho. The Princess, who is herself one of the first Ambassadors for Climate Justice in her country, nominated all other new Climate Justice Ambassadors at this Academy. The Lesotho Minister for Forestry began his own speech by saying that he had now recognised his mistake of always relying purely on the adults. From this day forth he promised to correct this and to start trusting the children. In addition he promised the children from all districts of Lesotho, that they could now have free seedling from all state nurseries.

The Queen of Lesotho said that it was a great honour that Lesotho was now allowed to be part of the world wide network of Plant-for-the-Planet. The Queen promised the children that she would support them in their efforts and she emphasised the point that the adults have only borrowed the world from the children and will have to give it back to them again.

At the end of the two day Academy with 500 children from all regions of Lesotho, the children made “Stop talking. Start Planting.” posters with the Ministers and the Queen, sang the national anthem and planted several trees. This was really was the culmination of our trip to Africa. Thank you to all people, who made it possible to empower so many children in Africa!