District Governor Agnes Mungati Batengas Joins Rotary Club of Maya to Promote ‘Plant your Balance!’ Campaign to Restore Trees for the Next Generation
Over the past weekend, in my other life as an Anglican Christian leader at St Matthew Maya Church of Uganda (Namirembe Diocese), we hosted Ms. Agnes Mungati Batengas, the District Governor (District 9214 that includes Tanzania and Uganda, 2024 -2025). She was on a double fold mission, working with the newly inaugurated Rotary Club of Maya: to launch a community toilet project that will serve the fast growing population of Maya town and adjacent areas as well as the high number of sports men, women and children that use a neighboring pitch but lack a viable facility. This was succeffuly done.
The other interesting objective of her visit was to raise the profile the Rotary Club’s ‘Plant Your Balance! Campaign’. This initiative is one of the activities to commemorate 100 years of Rotary in Africa.
The idea behind the “Plant Your Balance” campaign is for each Rotary Club to subtract the years of their existence from Rotary’s 100 years in Africa then multiply by a hundred. The result is the number of trees that each club will to plant in the next three years.
Speaking at the occasion, Rotary Governor – Agnes Mungati noted that ‘every one of us irrespective of religious belief needs to act in unison to restore the fast appearing tree cover in Uganda and elsewhere in the world’. The recently released Uganda National Population and Housing Census 2024 results indicate that 91% of Uganda 45,905,417 population use firewood and other solid fuels for cooking.
Agnes encouraged St Matthew Church of Uganda brethren to take up this challenge and join Rotary Club’s tree planting efforts in their respective homes, communities and at Church. She planted a Mango tree at the Church premises, to signify the Plant Your Balance! Campaign
Rotary International is one of the largest service organizations in the world, and has invested heavily in providing clean water and sanitation, supporting education, preventing and treating disease, saving mothers and children, growing local economies, promoting peace, and protecting the environment. Rotary clubs have been encouraged to embrace partnerships and plant trees at schools, hospitals, Churches, Mosques, and communities all over Uganda.
The “Plant Your Balance” initiative will focus on indigenous varieties and fruit trees. It is in line with the Global Biodiversity Framework adopted by the Parties to the UN Biodiversity Convention, to take urgent action to halt and reverse biodiversity loss and to put nature on a path to recovery for the benefit o people and the planet.
