To recognize and celebrate World Soils Day on 5 December 2019, Global Hand Cameroon visited pupils at a local school to discuss soil protection and conservation.  Mindful of the fact that the parents of most of the students are farmers, we took time to educate the children on the importance of soil and the role of human influence on soil pollution and its resulting consequences.

Local farmers currently face serious environmental challenges in the form of prolonged and severe wet/dry seasons, strong winds, erosion and pests.  Because of this, many have resorted to the use of chemical weeding, synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.  These non-traditional methods of farming have had negative effects on the soil as well as producing crops that rot faster and, in some cases, have an inferior flavor.

Our discussion with the school children focused on ways in which traditional farming methods could be modified without the use of chemicals to protect our soils and increase production, thus improving our lives.