Inspired by a national drive for a cleaner world in the ScoutsSA movement, the idea for a spekboom farm was born. 

The reason for planting spekbooms is that they are easy to grow and incredibly efficient with not only water and soil, but also in its ability to remove carbon from the atmosphere.

The goal was to involve a number of boys and girls in starting this farm. We had a number of scouts as well as students from St Johns college come out and help start 2 spekboom locations, one on the St Johns campus and one at the 1st German Scout hall. Then we would focus on real action, planting and maintaining the trees and then education for the relevant communities on our environment and global warming, more importantly, how we can help and inspire others.

We managed to plant and maintain around 100 spekbooms. The source of the trees was the Owl Rescue center, as such all money used in this project stayed in a constructive loop, from the participants to the rescue center.

I believe this project was a success, as not only are the farms doing well, but the involvement from the people was fantastic.

I hope this story inspires all the other scouts who read this!