Junior Girl Scouts Help Combat Desertification in Inner Mongolia

This past week Roots & Shoots Shanghai students and volunteers went to Kunlunqi, Inner Mongolia to plant trees as part of their ongoing effort to combat China's desertification. Roots & Shoots Shanghai launched a Carbon Footprint Tree Planting program in 2006 encouraging individuals, groups, and companies to voluntarily buyback their carbon footprint by buying trees (www.jgi-shanghai.org).

Since the program's start, 88,000 trees have been planted with the goal of one million trees by 2016. [The presence of the trees will help combat desertification, the frequency of sand storms throughout the region and enrich the livelihoods of Kulunqi farmers through monitored forest farms.]

After attending a presentation by Roots & Shoots on desertification in Inner Mongolia, Concordia International School's Junior Girl Scout's wanted to become a part of the solution. The troop held a 'Party 'til you're Purple' Bingo and Dance event to raise money for buying trees. Approximately 50 Junior and Brownie Girl Scouts attended the party, giving donations of 25rmb to "buy" trees in honor of their families.

The girls chose to pay for the party, snacks and prizes out of their troop funds in order to donate all proceeds directly to Roots & Shoots. The girls raised a total of 5,000 RMB, enough to buy a total of 200 trees!

Roots & Shoots is a non-profit organization registered in China. It's goal is to promote environmental education to children in China through experiential learning, empowering the youth of today to understand that they can save their world. Every individual can make a sustainable difference.

Website: http://www.jgi-shanghai.org