30 days of Y'ello care: MTN Cameroon employees, partner plant 500 trees in Douala.

MTN Cameroon partnered with the Agency National Forestry Development Agency, ANAFOR, to carry out a reforestation campaign across the ten regions of Cameroon. 

The campaign was launched on June 15 in Mbalmayo, Nyong and So’o Division of the Centre Region.

MTN Cameroon employees, accompanied by the Divisional Delegate of Forestry and Wildlife, as well as the second assistant Senior Divisional Officer for Nyong and So’o, planted 250 trees in the forest reserve of ANAFOR in Mbalmayo. 

The teams had equally carried out a second phase of the said campaign on June 21 at the ANAFOR site where 250 trees were planted. 

The reforestation campaign caravan was then then deported to Douala, where MTN Cameroon employees, partners planted trees along the Bessengue drain-way covering over 2 kilometre between Bonalembe and Bessengue villages.

The drain at Bessengue is seen as a vital waterway in Douala. City Council officials said it has been affected by deforestation and pollution. 

According to MTN Cameroon officials, planting new trees will help improve water quality, reduce soil erosion and provide shade and habitat for wildlife. 

“This initiative is part of MTN Cameroon’s ongoing commitment to environmental sustainability and community development. Note that this reforestation program is a continuation of that launched last year where MTN Cameroon employees and their partners planted nearly 1,700 trees across Cameroon,” MTN Cameroon stakeholders involvement lead, Paul-Henri Mbongo, told reporters.

He said they are working in synergy with the City Council to determine the areas which can better habours the trees, adding that the trees planted will solve the ecological problem of heat and create shades.

Also speaking during the event, the Director of Health and Environment Unit at the Douala City Council, Simon Eduard Ekotto Ndemba, hailed the initiative and said it falls in line with the council’s ambitions to transform Douala into a green city. 

He said before now, the City Council had embarked on planting some 10.000 trees across the city. 

“As you noticed, between the months of March, April to June, there were surges in heat waves so this action taken today will densify the number of trees in city. MTN being citizen-led organisation has the support of the City Council in this project aimed at ameliorating the lives and living standards of the population,” he said 

About the 30 Days of Y'ello Care 

The 30 Days of Y'ello Care programme is a charitable and benevolent initiative created by the MTN Group.

It engages its employees each year to carry out social actions for the welfare of communities in the 22 footprints of the Group throughout the world since 2007. 

It is a social investment policy complement embodied by the MTN Foundation. 

Unlike the Foundation's projects that are funded by the company and achieved over time, the programme, is supported by the efforts of employees. 

In all footprints of the MTN Group, employees themselves define the social actions they intend to carry out, and then materially and personally invest in achieving such projects which centers on a theme related to education, health, the environment and youth empowerment 

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No:3149 of Tuesday June 25, 2024