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ROBA Field Notes: Adopt a tree
​Hussein Watta, Executive Director,  Rural Organization for Betterment of Agro-Pastoralists (ROBA), Ethiopia reports how 'Trees for Life' project, an activity to plant trees through an artful arrangement for aerial and satellite viewing, is improving his community and challenging how climate and art is used for climate mitigation in the Oromia region of Ethiopia.  (October 29, 2021) 
The weather is now getting better in terms of rain intensity. The land is not as water logged. Enough water has evaporated so the plots of land are  suitable for planting. Above you can see the youth learning to survey and measure the ground for the planting of the Living lion artwork.
 
We are discussing that each student and teacher adopt a tree or number of trees and take of care them in terms of watering and looking after their overall health. In Oromo culture we practice "Gudifacha" or adopting a child. When someone fails to have a child  "He or She can adopt" a child from a relative or friend. Our Motto now is "adopt" a sapling tree in the schools. It is proving popular with the youth. These children are learning first hand about plants and community wellbeing in a time of climate change.
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Our school children are excited by the events.

​We planted the Living lion artwork on Tuesday (Oct 26, 2021) at the ROBA school.  Tree circle at the Gurmicho school was planted on Thursday (Oct 28, 2021) The third school, Usula Moke, has the Cordia Sapling living art.

An amazing thing we observed so far is an interest developed within our school children for art, especially digital art as well as the living art on the ground. 
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​Some adults and government officials laugh at us and at that the prospect of this project. They think we are playing and wasting time when we plant trees in the shape of a lion or a tree circle.

The wider support of community for this arts program is very strong and we have many advocates from children, teachers to elders to continue to evolve it.
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​The feedback we continue to receive particularly from the school children is so positive about the tree learning and the arts. Everybody is asking if we can continue with the "art education" as the schools don't include it or digital media in the curriculum.

The kids have had no opportunity to see cameras, video cameras, or laptops in these rural areas. These are the disparities between urban and rural centres. We continue to be very proud of ‘Trees for Life.’ We hope our children will continue to grow like the program and help our community to have deeper roots and knowledge in the arts, traditional ecological knowledge and can better understand their past and future.
I think we need to acknowledge through this program that there has been a reawakening for us in planting and learning about trees.  Trees are a gift of Life. Trees and Nature define us.  

Ours is a story of modern indigenous perseverance, horticultural good, and old-fashioned cooperation at a local and international level. It’s also a story about this newly grown set of trees connecting us to our knowledge, ancestors, and connecting everyone to Nature and to histories that began long before. Growing again is a way to circle back to find balance and to open who we really are and make Nature central to our lives again. One word may be best used to understand our relation to Trees and Life: 'Reverence.'   We also now have renewed reverence for continuing our traditions and sharing our knowledge with our younger populations.
About Hussein Watta
Hussein Watta has more than 20 years of experience with humanitarian aid relief, rehabilitation, and rural development projects in Africa with experience in Ethiopia, Namibia, Tanzania, Mozambique, and South Sudan. Hussein has been the Executive Director of ROBA for the last decade. He has participated in the final evaluations of both the World Vision and Afar Area Development Program and South Wollo Emergency and Rehabilitation Program, ZOA Refugee Care (Ethiopia program). He is an Ethiopian born citizen with a Masters in Horticultural Studies and is fluent in Afan Oromo, Amharic, English and Swahili languages. 
 
About Rural Organization for the Betterment of Agropastoralists (ROBA) | Ethiopia
​ROBA was established as a non-profit in 1999 by Kofele elders and community stakeholders. The organization's mandate is to respond to the challenges and root causes of poverty, and expand services to rural communities in order to reduce inequalities and improve the lives of women, children and youth, particularly in the Oromia region of Ethiopia. Key organizational areas of specialised delivery include (1) poverty reduction through economic empowerment in agricultural and natural resource management, (2) creation of education and literacy programs (3) promotion of climate adaptation learning to (4) gender/women's rights, and (5) development of emergency response programs to natural and/or health disasters.  

ROBA's successes since its establishment have included building 24 education centres,  2 medical health clinics, creating a network of over 60 km of road systems to connect remote communities together, establishing 85 trade co-operatives, and supporting the establishment and operation of a network of specialized independent credit unions to serve the banking needs of agropastoralists.
RESOURCES

Rural Organization for the Betterment of Agropastoralists (ROBA) Ethiopia  
www.robaethiopia.org
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To learn more about agropastoralists the following article in the World Environmental Library gives an overview to this specialized farming system.  
Who’s behind the project?
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​Trees for Life project has been supported by the British Council’s Creative Commissions 2021 programme. This was a series of creative commissions exploring climate change through art, science and digital technology for presentation at COP26.
Trees for Life continues as an active artists-community collaboration and illustrates that land rehabilitation doesn’t need to be expensive. We understand the benefit of trees to the land and that people can assist in creating better soils and future-proofing sites from climate issues by planting trees. 
 
Trees for Life also highlights that sustainability is dependent on the motivation and generosity of citizens, communities, artists, and scientists working together to redefine the challenges of climate change and to foster the next generation with the idea that we can make an impact through climate art and other creative approaches.

Tree Circles and Trees for Life project are co-led by climate design and media artists, Sylvia Grace Borda (Canada) and J.Keith Donnelly (UK) together with partners Ethiopia (ROBA – Rural Organisation for the Betterment of Agro-Pastoralists ) in the UK (Dundee UNESCO City of Design, Dundee City Council, Scotland),  and Canada (Institute for Sustainable Horticulture, Kwantlen Polytechnic University) to creatively respond to global issues of climate change.  ​