The 72 hour campaign run by BDKJ, the German Confederation of Catholic Youth has had an impact on many countries outside Germany. 3,400 groups in Germany were joined by 45 international groups. With this campaign, ideas are collected and implemented in 72 hour projects to make this world a better place.
In Paraguay, 40 young members of the San Blas / Villarrica Kolping Youth decided to plant trees as part of this campaign. 50 lapacho trees were planted and each seedling was provided with its own miniature cistern: The plants were put in the earth in the neck of a bottle, the bottom of the bottle was cut off, which helps to collect more rain water that is led directly to the roots. The Kolping Youth will continue to care for these trees in the next few years, which will have pink flowers in August after five or six years time.
This campaign shows that protecting our environment is a major issue all over the world. In addition, the youngsters used several days during that campaign to encourage people in their neighborhood to reduce plastic waste by using cloth bags for shopping, to ride the bike more often or to walk – or to bring their own water bottle instead of buying plastic bottles.
