Green Vehari Initiative, 2009

Onthis 14th of August, 2009 Anwar JannatMemorial Foundation in collaboration with World Life Organization (WLO),its partner NGO launched an ambitious programme "Green Vehari Initiative, 2009". We planted over 20,000hardwood trees in the Village 102 E.B, U.C 85, Tehsil Burewala, andDistrict Vehari. This event was part of the initiative to plant 100,000hardwood trees in the UC-85. The trees were planted ensuring sustainablegrowth of the trees with private ownership. Trees were alsoplanted on the government land (Roads, Schools, graveyards etc.) There areno hardwood trees available to be planted. The government nurseries have asmall number available and the private nurseries are too expensive. There are major gaps in the system; there is no provision of free treesin the Provincial Forest department or District Forest Department, Even if youwant to plant trees on their designated areas. But we have to preserve thenatural habitat for our future generations, and as they

"When a butterfly flutters her wings in the Amazon it brings a typhoonin the Asian Pacific". Ecology is very fragile and everythingaffects it globally, a tree planted on public or private land has the sameeffect and thus contributes to the shared future of humanity. Therefore, wewill plant 100,000 hardwood trees this year with the help of the volunteers andthe locals who want to change their living. Many nurseries and PARC (PakistanAgricultural Research Council) have promised us to donate trees; we will alsobuy some saplings from forest department and local nurseries, if we haveto. For the future projects we plan to raise our own nurseries of hardwoodtrees to make our home Green. Our goal is to plant 100,000 trees in every UnionCouncil in the target area of 5 Union Councils. On the same day, a free medicalcamp was also got arranged wherein about 15 NGOs of District Vehari fullymobilized their resources and thus about 2672 patients were not only medicallychecked-up but also given medicines free-of-cost. More than 150 people weretested against Hepatitis.

 It is pertinent to mention here that AnwarJannat Memorial Foundation has already launched its Millennium DevelopmentDistricts Programme (MDDP) in two pilot Districts with five Union Councils each(Chiniot & Vehari). It envisages a tri-partite relationship among the localNGOs/CBOs, The District Government & the target community itself with afocus on resources (both human & financial) mobilization. The uniqueprogramme aims to make a wide array of key interventions in the five thematicareas which are our national priorities and also in line with our nationalcommitment to realize MDGs. They are Poverty, Education, Health, and Gender& Environment. We aspire to mobilize the community support at the verygrass root level and will select model Union Councils as the target areas ineach Millennium District to achieve quantifiable targets in the afore mentionedfive sectors of social development. Yet again our focus shall remain on youthvolunteers who shall be trained to act as the ambassadors of Development intheir local areas of responsibility through Active Citizenship and YouthLeadership.

These model Union Councils after their successfulpilot testing shall then be replicated in the entire Districts and thus usherin a new era of change for the better.