More than 160,000 fruit trees are planned to be planted in 4,496 primary schools and 232 Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres across Rwanda under a new initiative aimed at improving school feeding, environmental protection, and climate education. A memorandum of understanding for the initiative was signed on Monday, May 18, between UNICEF, a United Nations agency dedicated to improving and promoting the well-being of children, and the Ministry of Environment through One Acre Fund, which will implement the programme alongside other partners. ALSO READ: FEATURED: UNICEF Rwanda, Japan launch $1.35m project for disaster-affected communities The initiative dubbed “Our Trees, Our Future” (Ibiti Byacu, Ejo Heza Hacu”) will see each school receive around 40 fruit tree seedlings, including avocado, mango, orange and lemon varieties. Officials said the programme is intended to support nutrition in schools while helping children learn environmental conservation through practice. The nationwide planting exercise is expected to begin between September and November during the rainy season, with preparations already underway in nurseries across the country to ensure seedlings are ready in time. The programme will not only focus on distributing trees to schools, but also on grafting, monitoring, and long-term care to ensure survival rates. The initiative will roll out progressively throughout the academic year, its implanters indicated. Partners highlight education, nutrition, and climate benefits Speaking during the initiative launch, Etleva Kadilli, the UNICEF Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, said Rwanda’s initiative stood out because it directly connects climate action to children’s lives. “We cannot ask a generation to solve the climate crisis if they have not been equipped with the knowledge they need,” Kadilli said. “In Rwanda, we are seeing what it looks like when climate education moves beyond the classroom and becomes something children can participate in and help lead.” She noted that Rwanda’s high primary school enrolment made schools an effective platform for reaching children nationwide. “For this particular initiative, primary schools reach each and every child of that age in Rwanda,” she said. “The schools were happy to receive the 40 trees and committed to planting and taking care of them.” Kadilli added that UNICEF hopes to study Rwanda’s model and potentially replicate it in other countries in Eastern and Southern Africa facing climate-related challenges. ALSO READ: Rwanda expands school feeding programme with 40% budget increase The Minister of Environment, Bernadette Arakwiye, said the initiative complements Rwanda’s ongoing reforestation efforts under the second National Strategy for Transformation (NST2), which targets growing 300 million seedlings. She noted that the government plans to increase forest cover, which is currently at 30.4 per cent. Arakwiye said schools were deliberately targeted because many have land that can support tree planting while contributing to school feeding programmes. “We noticed that many schools have land around them that is not covered with trees,” she said. “At the same time, schools are responsible for feeding children and could use nutritious food from fruit trees.” She said the initiative addresses several challenges at once, including environmental degradation, food security, and climate education. “When a fruit tree is planted, it captures carbon, helps clean the air, improves soil health, provides shade and produces nutritious food,” Arakwiye said. ALSO READ: Rwanda school feeding scheme pledges now over Rwf300m The Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Education, Charles Karakye, said the programme would complement the existing school feeding programme, especially in schools where fruits are often missing from children’s meals. “In Rwanda there are about 5,000 schools and many provide meals, but fruits are not always included,” he said. Karakye added that the trees would also help protect school infrastructure from strong winds. “In some schools, winds destroy classrooms and roofs because there are no trees around them,” he said. “Once these trees mature, they will act as windbreakers.” ALSO READ: Rwanda allocates over 8% of its budget to fighting climate change Belinda Bwiza, the CEO of One Acre Fund said the initiative is also expected to support local livelihoods through Rwanda’s network of tree nursery operators. “We have over 2,000 tree nursery entrepreneurs across the country, many of them youth and women,” Bwiza said. She said the initiative would create demand for seedlings while strengthening rural livelihoods and promoting environmental restoration. “At One Acre Fund, we have distributed more than 145 million trees over the years,” she said. “This partnership is not simply about planting trees, it is about planting long-term resilience in communities.” ALSO READ: Rwanda revises greenhouse gas emissions reduction target to 53% Lieke van de Wiel, Rwanda’s UNICEF Country Director, linked the initiative to UNICEF’s 40 years of partnership with Rwanda. She said the programme emerged from discussions on how to celebrate the milestone while creating long-term impact for children. “We said if we are planting trees in schools, let them be fruit trees,” she said. “Ten years from now, children will remember that they planted those trees, took care of them and enjoyed the fruits from them.”
