College students develop APP to promote tree planting

Five final year students of the Bethel American International School have developed an App that will promote tree planting initiative Projects in Nigeria

The college under the name TechBuzs Group entered into partnership with T.R.E.E. Initiative an NGO advocating for massive tree planting to mitigate climate change across Nigeria.

At the signing of the MOU which was the highpoint of 18 months engagement between the NGO and the TechBuzz Group, ‘Sola Kolawole who is the Founder and Executive Director T.R.E.E. Initiative appreciated the Secondary School students for taking such a bold step to promote the SDGs.

He said the use of the APP will protect the planet earth from the devastating effects of deforestation and desertification adding that the App will help tackle climate change.

According to him, the partnership between T.R.E.E. Initiative and TechBuzs Group, at the Bethel American International School culminated into the signing of an MOU in November 2021 at the school premise located within the Good Samaritan Society Mission Village in Oyo State.

According to him, the college students are passionate and committed to making the world a better place using a technology driven medium to hasten the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adding that by so doing they are making a huge impact on the environment globally. 

“TechBuzs Group developed the GREENEVA App through which donations can be made globally by the App users to donate trees to be planted and nurtured in Nigeria by T.R.E.E. Initiative.

Also at the signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding which was attended by the School Management and Students, T.R.E.E. Kolawole commended the school for raising such talented and well cultured crop of Students. 

He told the story of how the students reached out to him via email during the COVID Lockdown in 2020 and talked about their work on the GREENEVA App. 

“It took several months of virtual meetings and email exchanges until the first physical meeting was held at T.R.E.E. Initiative  headquaters sometimes in July 2021. 

“Eventually, we agreed on collaborating and that was how the GREENEVA App was birthed.

Also in his remarks, T.R.E.E. Initiative Founder, mentioned that the National Shea Tree Restoration Project (NASTREP) conceived by his organization to restore Shea Parklands across the 22 States under the Shea Butter Belt in Nigeria will benefit from trees donated via the GREENEVA App. T.R.E.E. Initiative over the next 5 years.

He said initiative is mobilizing resources and funds to nurture and grow 2 million improved Shea tree seedlings on 800,000 hectares of land under a unique Agroforestry Model that will sequest between more than 200,000 tons of carbon and empower about 200,000 smallholder women farmers in communities across Nigeria. 

“With such an App as GREENEVA, it will be easy to reach and surpass this milestone in record time leveraging on the power of technology.”

On the TechBuzs Group are five Grade 12 students Adewale Adeyemi (18), Oreofe Solarin (16), Adewole-Oriade Adeoluwa (16), Gbeminiyi Isiade (15) and Michael Ayodele (15)

While making his remarks during the signing, sixteen year old Oreofe Solarin, the Team Lead spoke of their interest in the environment based on the orientation they got in school and the passion that led his team, TechBuzs Group to think of creating such an App to support the SDGs, particularly Goals 13 and 15. He also talked about how they searched and got in touch with T.R.E.E. Initiative and the Executive Director, Sola Kolawole to achieve their goal.

The Director of the Bethel American International School, Dr. Wole Aderinkomi was elated that such a remarkable feat was coming from his own students and he appreciated T.R.E.E. Initiative for opting to work and guide the Students to achieve this goal. He was optimistic that the GREENEVA App will make significant impact and many more breakthroughs as it attempts to raise a community working collectively for the success of the SDGs, as well as environmental and biodiversity conservation.

The GREENEVA App can be download from Google Play Store. Once the App has been installed, you need to create an account using either Google, Twitter, Facebook, or non-Google affiliated emails, like Yahoo, ProtonMail, and AOL, after which you can now choose to donate to plant trees.

With the APP We can now plant more trees in Nigeria from anywhere on earth.