As part of the campaign for environmental education and awareness, this month I set out to create and reinforce environment clubs in my region. Environmental groups and clubs are a great way to get people engaged in environmentalism and awareness. 

The first school that I reached out to is a primary school called Hillside school. I was impressed to learn that they have set apart one day of the week to dedicate to clubs and societies. They already had a somewhat active environmental club whose main activity, which involved the whole school, was picking up trash in the school compound. Classes did this on rotation. After talks with the schools head teacher, she was kind enough to invite me to observe a typical trash picking day. Friday evening before school breaks, the students of scheduled/appointed class participated in collecting trash which takes about 15 minutes before they join the rest of the school for games. 

We agreed that I would develop a curriculum for the environment club and come up with different projects that club members would participate in with the help of the teacher in charge of clubs and societies. We would also work to create a more structured club by choosing club officials, providing leadership roles and responsibilities, and how these leadership roles will be filled in the future. Club activities would resume in May when the school opens. Schools closed for the April end term holiday break.

The second target group was my community. I chose, to reach out to a local women's group or "chama" as we call them in Kenya and proposed engaging children in the community in environmental education and activities through creating a local children's group and to my surprise, this was met by willing and excited parents who thrilled to enroll their children in a worthwhile after-school program. With the parents advisory, we selected a local church which opens its doors and field for public meetings on weekends. Most children would come to play in the fields after school.

After planning and receiving permission from the church authorities to hold regular meetings, I had the first meeting on Saturday, 3/23/2019.  with the children. For the first meeting, we had an interactive session where we introduced ourselves, shared expectations for the club and scheduled future meetings. 

Goals for the Environmental Club Project

To continue environmental sensitization, nurture youth and children to be champions of environmental action and develop active and proactive environmental clubs, I have set the following goals;

Develop a club curriculum to enhance environmental literacy and guide club activities

Conduct a community inventory and identify projects that best serve target schools and communities

Diversify club activities to keep club members active and motivated to participate in environmentalism.

Increase recruitment of youth and children through advertisement and community projects to not only join the club but form a movement 

The project is still in its infantry stages and has had a humble beginning but I believe through dedication, more children and youth will be motivated to join in the fight to create a more environmentally conscious and sustainable society.