Fostering Global Connectedness
Roots & Shoots group activities are as varied as young peoples’ imaginations. The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Roots & Shoots group of Newark, Del., filled backpacks with school supplies to give to Liberian refugees in their community. A group in Lagos, Nigeria, cleared rubble washed onto a road by yearly floods and eliminated pools of water that bred malaria-bearing mosquitoes. In Shanghai, the Changzheng Middle School group educated the public about recycling by organizing a phonebook recycling project.
Roots & Shoots makes a concerted effort to foster global connectedness. All over the world, members are encouraged to correspond, network, and learn from each other.
Some of the newest Roots & Shoots groups are in and around refugee camps in Uganda and Tanzania, founded in partnership with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Four school groups inside the Lugufu refugee camp near Kigoma, Tanzania, are learning about conservation. They also raised money to buy chickens as a source of eggs to eat and sell, and planted three large vegetable gardens.
Dr. Jane Goodall with members of Roots & Shoots in Tanzania. August 2002.
© Michael Neugebauer