NAN-AE-5
Awareness
ByVivianEmoni
Abuja, May 8, 2017 (NAN) The Ecolife Conservation Initiative, an NGO says the organisation has started its public awareness on impact of climate change in Federal Junior Secondary Schools in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Mr Chibuzo Akubuike, the Programme Officer of the organisation disclosed this at a one-day
public awareness organised by the NGO when it visited the Junior Secondary School (JSS) in Kubwa, a satellite town in the FCT on Monday.
Akubuike said that Nigerians needed to be conscious of the role of the environment in whatever they were doing.
He said that the students were enlightened on how activities affect the planet earth and what could be done to mitigate the effect on the environment.
He said that a lot of human activities were threatening the sustainability of the earth, adding that the awareness would assist to reduce the negative effect of climate change.
According to him, the campaign has to start from school children because they learn fast and they are good source of disseminating information.
“The aim of the awareness is to educate the students on the impact of climate change and to let them know the dangers of climate change in our environment.
“When these children go back home, they will talk to their parents, their sibling, friends and relatives on what are taught on the negative effect of climate change.
“They will also go to their various churches and mosques and spread the information; that is the reason we decided to start from school,’’ he said.
Akubuike said that the organisation wanted the students to understand the role of the earth in various
spheres of life and to embrace green economy.
He said that the organisation also enlightened the students on the importance of tree planting to the environment.
He said that the students were trained to know that as one tree was being cut down; six trees should be used to replace it.
He added that the idea would make the environment more resilient for this generation and the next.
The programme officer said that the organisation`s focal point was to tackle environmental and climate change issues.
According to him, now our organisation realised that if actually action is not taken fast, it is going to constitute a lot of hardship, problem and environmental hazards.
“We move around with our teaching equipment and flyers to ensure that people are educated on the negative effect on climate change.
“It is not particularly about schools alone, the idea the NGO conceived is to take this enlightenment campaign to all the communities in the FCT and states in the country.
“We will let Nigerians know that climate change has emerged as one of the most devastating environment threats.
“They should also know that adverse weather condition will also affect health, food security, safety and total environmental degradation.
“So Nigerians should be cautioned on the kind of activities they do in a daily basis, ’’Akubuike said.
Joseph Oche, a JSS 2 student of the school who participated on the training told the News Agency of Nigerian (NAN) that the training was interesting and had impacted a lot of knowledge on the negative impact of climate change to the students.
He, however, thanked the organisation for the training, adding that such knowledge should be spread to other communities in the country. (NAN)
VOE/AAB/GY
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Edited by Adeboye Ajayi/Grace Yussuf