GREEN DESERT CHALLENGE
July 27, 2010
AJ team of 27 YOUTH VOLUNTEERS took a journey of a thousand miles to ascend the highlands of Inner Mongolia and embarked on the GREEN DESERT CHALLENGE in Jun. The challenge: to combat the desertification on the grasslands. and Northern China by building the Great Green Wall.
They raised about S$10,000 from families & friends and support from National Youth Council under the Youth Expedition Project (YEP) to plant 1000 trees in Duolun County of Inner Mongolia. With a highly driven “Mulan” team (21 ladies and 6 men) leading the charge, the challenge was met after 10 days of work digging and planting from 7am till 8pm daily, after the last drop of summer daylight disappeared from the grassland sky.
The Result?1023 trees! Great Beginning…
“PLANT AN ACRE OF GRASS LAND IN DUOLUN AND RECOVER A PIECE OF BLUE SKY IN BEIJING” is the slogan of the desertification project in Inner Mongolia since 2001.
Since 2002, Asian Journeys has been a partner and advocate for Inner Mongolia’s Duolun tree-planting project. We have developed the project name “GREEN DESERT PROJECT” to challenge Singaporean youths to dream the dream of greening the desert. It is an oxymoron, and an ambitious and humongous dream.
“Pouring water into sand” and “hoping plants to bloom in the wastelands” are just some of the responses we have gotten since we started. That has been the challenge of environmental efforts around the world, an exercise of seeming futility. Another oft-heard remark: What can I do to make a difference? Why should I do it when the masses do not seem to bother?
As we like to say at AJ, citing Laozi: The Journey of a Thousand Miles begins with the First Step. The First step counts, the first tree counts and now the first Thousand Trees have been planted with volunteers and donors.
We will plant 5000 trees in the first AJ tree-planting site, then the next 5000 trees in the next AJ site. We can Make A Difference in the green desert project. Keith and Joyce and the 25 youth leaders are among our international volunteers at Asian Journeys who have made their journeys and… made a difference.
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