IAAF envoy Tergat to youth: Plant more trees

Mar 02, 2017

"We are in a world that is fast-developing and thus more forests and trees are being depleted."

IAAF Cross Country ambassador Paul Tergat has launched the IAAF Kampala World Cross Country Championships Kampala 2017 Greening Project with a call to youth to plant more trees.

This was at Kololo Independence Grounds, the venue for the March 26 World Cross Country Championships.

The Greening Project is one of the legacy programmes for the event aimed at realizing a greener world.

Regarded as one of the most accomplished long-distance runners of all time, Kenyan Tergat believes planting more trees will help save the world from environmental depletion.

"We are in a world that is fast-developing and thus more forests and trees are being depleted," he said at the launch of the project in Kampala on Wednesday.

 

"What we would like to tell you is that planting a tree will help you keep the world greener and healthier. It will help remove the toxic air coming from the factories and our vehicles from the air we breathe," former professional long distance runner told students from different Kampala schools that attended the launch.

"We are also facing a dry spell because of this. Everyone wants a cool environment and the only way to get it is by planting more trees. I personally have more trees at my home and this makes my home look nice.

KCCA education director Juliet Namuddu interacts with Tergat and the school children


‘I will be coming back'

Tergat, 47, who held the world record in the marathon from 2003 to 2007, said people and cattle are dying  in his home country (Kenya)  because they do not have water, which has been brought about by  the lack of enough trees.

He later handed over tree seedlings to students from 15 schools, whom he advised to plant and nurture them.

 

"This is not a one-off. I will be coming back to Uganda to see how far this project is going  on during the World Cross Country Championships and its success of it depends on how we cater for the trees we have just got," said Tergat.

Host City Kampala director for Education Juliet Namuddu said that they want all schools to plant over 100,000 trees to commemorate Uganda's hosting the global event, and have been joined by calls from the different education institutions.

"We want a green Uganda that will be able to sustain our children in the future," she said.

 

 

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IAAF World Cross Country Championships Kampala 2017 director Aggrey Kagonyera  and LOC secretary Beatrice Ayikoru interact with Tergat



For more stories related to the upcoming world event in Kampala, visit the official website HERE

 

 

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