I remember when I was still in Southern Leyte I read a sign at the corner of some street by a famous politician: "One man, one tree can make a forest." Teaching there for two years, I was part of the fulfillment of that slogan. Every semester I joined the tree growing and planting program spearheaded by the National Service Training Program (NSTP) of the university.
I am currently a part of the basic education system in Cebu, Philippines, where we do not only do tree planting and growing twice a year but once a month, approximately nine or ten times in a school year. This tree planting/growing is a joint program by the Department of Education and the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Incorporated. The foundation provides the seedlings and the school plants and grows it.
Our last tree growing this school year happened last March 27, yes, it was during the holy week. My students checked the trees they planted last June. They also replaced the seedlings they planted that died. After that, they took selfies and pictures, just few of the many that they took every time they went up the mountain to check their planted trees. I had thirty-nine students last school year, so that would be many forests to grow.
