To commemorate the 2023 World Environment Day, Ecocykle Development Foundation in collaboration with Climate and Sustainable Development Network of Nigeria (CSDevNet), hosted the Climate Action Youth Tour (CAYT) for secondary school students in Nasarawa State.
The excursion was aimed at educating, enlightening, and inspiring young people towards identifying sustainable solutions for combatting plastic pollution. This was inline with the theme for this year’s World Environment day tagged “Beat Plastic Pollution”.
This program provided young people with an opportunity to visit major plastic pollution sites, plastic recycling companies, and other waste management facilities in Nasarawa State, hence enabling the students to understand more evidently the direct impacts of plastic waste on the environment including water bodies, climate change, and health and also expose them to existing solutions to address these menace, with an expectation to inspire more innovative solutions amongst participants.
About 25 students between the ages of 10-18 years including males and females from Government Secondary school Nyanya-Gbagyi and Junior Secondary School Nyanya-Gbagyi participated in the plastic pollution excursion.
Aliyu Sadiq, Executive Director of Ecocykle Development Foundation stated that the purpose of this program was to give students a more practical understanding of the impacts of plastic pollution to the environment and also expose them to existing tosolutions for combatting plastic pollution, hence inspiring them to also take action towards tackling the common problem.
According to Mrs. Sutik Ken, a Geography teacher at GSS Nyanya-Gbagyi, the students were super excited because it was an opportunity for them to explore nature and add to their knowledge base in terms of their physical environment.They learnt about effects of plastic pollution and how to beat it.They benefited from this project by knowing the effects of waste pollution in the environment how to address the problem.
in an interview with the students, they expressed delighted over the opportunity given to them to attend the excursion.
“This excursion has provided me with an opportunity to understand the problems and solutions to plastic pollution”
~Adah Ragina
Mariam Idris, Program Assistant at CSDevNet, highlighted that the importance of knowledge on climate change and pollution especially for the younger generation is critical for achieving sustainable development. She also state that the network is keen on supporting the impactful work of it’s members especially as it relates to climate change and sustainable development. She further stated that the excursion highly meaningful and impactful.
At the end of the tour, participants identified and suggested meaningful ideas for the development of the plastic waste action plan for schools. This action plan is expected to metamorphose into small projects for students to directly solve the problem of plastic pollution in their respective schools.
By
Aliyu Sadiq
