NURTURING THE NEXT GENERATION OF SUSTAINABLITY CHAMPIONS
60+ eager pupils and teachers from 10 education facilities across the Western Rural District attended Saturday's launch of the innovative school's programme at Freetown Teacher's College aiming to tackle climate change and nurture the next generation of sustainability champions, jointly developed by Sierra Leone School Green Club, Society for Climate Change Communication and funded by the UK's Sierra Leone Poverty Alleviation Charitable Trust.
More than sixty pupils and teachers arrived from across Western Rural district - Rising Academy, Joy, REC, May Ford, Kellys Rural Secondary Schools, FTC Practising School, Jui and Portee Vocational Institutes and Edest Academy all coming to actively participate in the innovative programme.
Kicking off the event with a welcome for the pupils and teachers Mr Foday Amadu Mannah said:
"Climate Change is a global problem and Sierra Leone is not immune, the Regent mudslide shows this. We must put our collective efforts to the fight against cliamte change."
The event was ably facilitated by Mr Foday Kamara, Lecturer, Mr Daniel Conteh and Mr Daniel Turay, Agriculture and Environmental specialists.
In the third most vulnerable country to Climate Change, pupils enthusiatically engaged with workshops on Global Warming and Climate Change and pollution in the environment - some of the suggestions and priorities of the children were - Stop Deforestation - help forest families change the way they make money - clean cheap energy - minimize mining and implement existing by-laws.
Mr Daniel Conteh, facilitator, announced prizes for the top three Green Clubs and the ten participating educational establishments will form the Western Rural District pilot for the Green Club network, each school commiting to take ownership of their own programme to ensure success.
Young Diplomat for Nutrition and promoting the SDGs and head of SLSGC, Alhassan Sesay said:
"Now we can start the essential one-to-one support with each school to build a self-sustaining network in the Western Rural District of 10 Green Clubs with approximately 50 pupils in each club to raise awareness about climate change amoungst our youth and their parents and create an action-orientated approach to adaptation."
Alfred Fornah, Young Diplomat for Climate Action and promoting the SDGs and Director of S4CCC, explained:
“This pilot helps put the sustainable development goals at the heart of education for our youth - if we're successful we will work with other environmental organizations in each Distict to create a nationwide-network of Green Clubs in our schools rapidly transforming youth's mind-set nurturing the next generation of environmental and sustainability champions."
The collaborative capacity building project aims to improve environmental awareness and governance in schools, using participatory approaches that bring together stakeholders to share experience on climate change mitigation and adaptation and will also develop the skills of pupils and promote environmental friendly lifestyles so that pupils can protect their environment and mitigate the impact of climate change.
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