College Students Plant a Tree for Peace in Wales

Students at the Eddw Vale Campus of Coleg Gwent in Wales decided to acknowledge the UN sponsored Internation Day of Peace in September by planting a tree in the college grounds.

Students from the Welsh Baccalaureate Childcare Course at the College joined a worldwide festival celebrating peace that saw trees for peace being put into the ground across the globe; part of an international event with trees being planted in schools and colleges at midday – local time – across the world, beginning in New Zealand, moving across Asia, Europe, America, and ending in Hawaii. A grand total of 143 schools and colleges from 62 countries will take part.

Roots of Peace

The students are part of the largest Further Education in College, with the Ebbw Vale Campus as just one of the six campuses of Coleg Gwent. One of the students spoke of the ceremony of planting the rowan tree, chosen as it typifies the trees found naturally on the Welsh mountainsides, saying: “We hope that as it grows it will serve as a permanent reminder of peace for the future.”

A lecturer at the college emphasised the origins of this initiative as being the students, with their concerns of the developments in the international arena. “The students wanted to be part of the UNs initiative to raise awareness of the violence and conflict around the world,” he said. “They study international issues as part of the Welsh Baccalaureate and this has raised their awareness of such issues.”

The programme is a sign of the concern shared by so many for future security, peace and opportunity, and should serve as a timely reminder to those who believe in the myth of the disinterest of the young.

Jethro Marsh