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Lilengo 3 years later: How planting trees helped an entire town

The word “Lilengo” actually means “barren soil” in local languages in Burkina Faso. A name that doesn’t quite fit the town anymore after the planting of trees brought environmental and social improvements.

Originally published on Ecosia’s blog

This is the town of Lilengo in Burkina Faso 3 years ago:

And this is how it looks today after our planting partners at OZG started the tree-planting program that Ecosia is now supporting and scaling up:

Lilengo serves as a projection of how your searches can help impoverished communities in Burkina Faso.

The environmental and social improvements that this program has brought to Lilengo was the main reason Ecosia decided to start supporting it at the end of 2014.

Three years ago Lilengo was a bare land, food was scarce and only one child had reached secondary school.

Nowadays, the luscious forests growing around Lilengo have brought life back to the village. More girls and boys attend secondary school, women have access to jobs and there is more food available for the population and their livestock.

Ecosia is now planting trees in neighbouring villages Baliata and Areel, hoping to repeat the success of Lilengo.

In Areel alphabetisation is particularly low, so it is especially here that the Ecosia team is expecting to see deep changes.

Stay tuned on the development of Baliata and Areel or let us bring you the good news as soon as it happens.

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