Afforestation Campaign in Lattakia to Mark Tree Day and Honor Martyrs’ Children

The “Syrian Travelers for Peace and Love” Team, with the participation of the Lattakia Agriculture Directorate, has recently launched an afforestation campaign marking Tree Day. The campaign, in which a number of martyrs’ children took part, was carried out in the vilages of “ Bshelee” in Jableh and “Jabal Al-Arba’een” in Qurdaha in Lattakia countryside.

During the campaign titled “Together We Can Build It”, a number of different forest saplings were planted aiming at reviving the areas which have been exposed to fires and the areas where trees were arbitrarily cut down.

In a statement to SANA correspondent, Mr. Tom Duggan, a British journalist who followed up the campaign, expressed happiness over taking part in the event, hailing Syria’s steadfastness in the face of the heinous terrorist war.

 He said he had been in Syria for six years and had witnessed all the events and battles that took place during the crisis in the country.

From the first week of his stay in Syria, he realized that what was happening in the country was completely different from what the misleading western media reported and circulated about the events in Syria, Duggan made it clear, stressing that Syria is a country that refused submissiveness to the will of its enemies and kept steadfast thanks to its united people and brave resistant army.

On his part, Deputy Agriculture Director, Eng. Nawaf Shehadah, stressed the importance of the afforestation campaign which aimed at reviving the lands which were damaged  by fires and arbitrary cutting of trees. He pointed out that saplings of “pine” and “kharnob” will be planted with the participation of school students and teachers, reiterating that tree plantation plays an important role in keeping the environment clean.

Raneem Abdul Qadder, the media coordinator of the “Syrian Travelers for Peace and Love” voluntary team, clarified that volunteers aimed to plant the burnt areas as to send a message to the world that Syria is recovering and the Syrians are determined to rebuild what has been destroyed during the crisis.

The team’s supervisor, Dr. Siham Aboud, affirmed that the objective of team’s participation in the campaign is to support nature and environment as well as to teach the children what land and belongingness to the homeland means and how trees and forests are preserved.

Some of the participants said that such events raise the children’s awareness about the values of virtue and building through encouraging them to take part in planting trees in the soil of their homeland.

They stressed that the campaign is very important, because the tree is the symbol of love, hope, giving and beauty and it expresses rejection to destructive mentality and advocates for the building and construction thinking.

Concluding the campaign, a number of martyrs’ children participating in the campaign were honored marking Christmas and the New Year.

Rawaa Ghanam