Planting trees for babies in Wales

I had an amazing bit of post last week, possibly one of my favourite pieces ever (it’s up there with penpal letters in my teens, concert tickets in my twenties and wedding invites in my thirties!)

The Welsh Government, has planted not one, but two trees for baby W! One is in a forest in Wales, the other is in a family’s garden in Uganda to help them to try and grow crops and make a living….

The name of the scheme is ‘Plant’ which conveniently translates into the Welsh word for ‘children’. They sent us this certificate which you can see, and also an accompanying letter telling us a bit more about the scheme including the grid reference details for baby W’s tree in South Wales!

Why was it one of my favourite pieces of post?

• I like to think I care about the environment, and helping poorer countries like those in Uganda…. but I am lazy… this allows me to help these causes while not lifting a finger!
• What a special present for our baby – his own tree! I can’t wait to go and see it in a few years time when he’s old enough to realise 🙂
• For both of those reasons above, opening this bit of post gave me such a feelgood factor! Especially considering it’s from the Government – I pay my taxes and in theory get a feelgood factor from having access to free health, education etc but the reality is we take these for granted. This, on the other hand is a cute use of taxes – a small, tangible, important and meaningful gift for every baby in Wales – thank you! Diolch!

Further reading if you’re interested:

• The official website that tells you more about the scheme
• a BBC article I found about it which says it was a schoolgirl’s idea, not a politician or civil servant’s 🙂

 

So what do you think about this? Do they run anything similar in your area? If not would you like them to or do you think it’s a waste of money?! I’d love to hear your thoughts….

Small print: I wasn’t asked by anyone to write this post, I just love the scheme and wanted to spread the word!