Youth Speaker entry #60: Idagu Blessing (Nigeria)

About the initiative

This initiative was designed to engage and educate young people on the impact of everyday environmental activities on their immediate environment and community at large.

Through environmental awareness seminars for secondary schools and public speaking competition for university undergraduates, young people are exposed to the impact of environmentally degrading activities like, bush burning, tree felling and improper waste disposal, with focus on how this affects the quality of life for their community.

Achievements/Activities

In June 2014 we launched a climate change awareness seminar in Calabar south community of Cross River State with the theme ” The Impact of Climate Change on Biodiversity.” This series of seminars was attended by young people who were educated on how to be responsible climate friendly citizens.

This seminar was followed up with an inter-faculty public speaking competition in May 2015, which required undergraduates of the University of Calabar to undertake extensive research and deliver speeches on how their academic disciplines can positively impact their immediate community and ways they plan to execute these. The 3-day event had in attendance, the Heads of departments of the various participating faculties as well as over two hundred (200) students in attendance.

Faculties of social science, law and arts and humanities came in 1st, 2nd and 3rd place respectively. Students’ speeches were judged based on how they were able to proffer practical ways in which their course of study can benefit and protect their immediate environment.

Certificates of participation were issued to all the eight faculties.

Next plan of action

Our next plan of action is to take the campaign of environmental consciousness to secondary schools and engage younger students in the campaign for the protection of the environment.

We plan to launch a tree-planting initiative, working with community heads of in local communities of Ogoja, Ikom and Yala local governments of the state, where tree-felling is very prevalent.

Our utmost desire

We look forward to working with other stakeholders in the environmental protection campaign and would be very pleased to share our insights, challenges and aspirations with the Global World Forestry Community.

Text, photo and video are submitted by Idagu Blessing (Nigeria) – realuniqueblessings2100(at)yahoo.com

The content, structure and grammar is at the discretion of the author only.

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This post is published as an application by the author, to speak as a youth representative at the World Forestry Congress. Have a look at the other entries too!

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