In line with Konica Minolta’s longstanding commitment to greening South Africa and sharing the benefits of trees with communities across the country, the team from Konica Minolta Gauteng, an authorised dealer of Konica Minolta South Africa and current ‘Dealer of the Year’ Award Winner for 2019/2020, recently visited Nokuphila Primary School in Tembisa, to plant five of the 20 trees they recently donated and to teach learners about their importance
In line with Konica Minolta’s longstanding commitment to greening South Africa and sharing the benefits of trees with communities across the country, the team from Konica Minolta Gauteng, an authorised dealer of Konica Minolta South Africa and current ‘Dealer of the Year’ Award Winner for 2019/2020, recently visited Nokuphila Primary School in Tembisa, to plant five of the 20 trees they recently donated and to teach learners about their importance.
The award-winning dealership planted the trees together with the highly regarded NPO Food & Trees for Africa, with whom Konica Minolta SA has been planting trees for over a decade, resulting in the company being carbon neutral since 2013.
“Despite having donated trees to the school during the national lockdown, the team were keen to get their hands dirty and plant a few of the trees with the children – while social distancing and wearing masks of course,” said Jason Kupritz, dealer principal at Konica Minolta Gauteng.
“The team from Food & Trees for Africa explained to the children how they should take care of the trees, and the role trees play within an ecosystem. We also ran a competition, allowing the learners to win prizes for answering questions correctly, based on what they’d learnt about trees,” continued Kupritz.
Nokuphila is a world-class school for the area, and the children are usually referred to the educational facility by various local community welfare organisations. Nokuphila Primary and Pre-Primary have over 340 children enrolled at any given time. Moreover, the school uplifts the education community at large. The Nokuphila Teacher Training Academy in Tembisa trains and develops accredited (NQF) Level 4 and Level 5 early childhood development teachers qualified to teach Grade 00 and Grade R respectively.
“The learners were happy to receive the trees and really excited for the opportunity to help plant and take care of them,” said Themba Temba, principal at Nokuphila Primary.
“We would like to thank Konica Minolta Gauteng for donating the trees, planting them and helping to instil a greater appreciation for trees within the learners and the role they play in our environment. We believe in developing eco ambassadors who will carry that message with them to their households and communities. So, like the trees themselves, the benefits of today’s tree planting will continue for years down the line,” concluded Michelle Peters, principal, Nokuphila Pre-Primary School.