INSPIRED YOUNG NIGERIANS SAVED A LOCAL COMMUNITY!by | 02-06-2014 08:52 |
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          A little while ago, the Mother Earth Day was celebrated and it would appear to a very keen observer, that the most significant part of that global celebration was the substantial participation of young people especially teenagers, in various environmental preservation activities specifically organised by different eco-friendly individuals, organizations and several agencies of governments as part of activities to celebrate the Mother Earth Day. Unfortunately however, there is sufficient evidence to believe that such zealous participations usually go down with the day with little or no efforts to continue with activities or initiatives which seek to reduce environmental pollution and biodiversity loss at all levels after such a day. Realizing the need for consistent and effective protection of the environment beyond the Mother Earth Day therefore, I embarked on a project in my capacity as Nigeria's Ambassador for Tunza Eco-generation, involving basically a set of enthusiastic and eco-conscious teenagers in a very local community in Ondo State, Nigeria, after I had sufficiently sensitised them on the need to work together as young Nigerians to overcome our common environmental challenges and much more, our roles as agents of social transformation. The teenagers (whom I called "Team Young And Green" ) and I, worked for a couple of hours as we cleared completely, a very horrifying dump site which according to the inhabitants had been in the neighbourhood for a couple of years without any effort to clear it away. This dump site had become a groundswell platform for mosquitoes to breed and inflict the deadly malaria parasite on the people and the stench of dirt oozing from the dump site had become extremely intolerable. It was extremely challenging I must admit, but at the end of it, it was worth the effort. Inspired by what I had led them to achieve, these teenagers persuaded me to come back to their community the next day to work on a drainage that led directly to the only available water source in the community, as it had also become a heavily polluted drainage more also like a dump site. I was inspired, I was encouraged. The next day, I was with them in their community and we began work again as all the available teenagers brought out their buckets, rakes, hoes and other materials and within a few hours, we had succeeded in packing out all the refuse in the drainage, dug another channel from it to a location far away from their water source and we fetched clean water to wash off the faeces we found in the drainage. We had done the "impossible"! We had transformed the hitherto polluted environment to a clean one safe for human habitation and development activities, just with the cooperation of a few teenagers. I appreciated them for collaborating with me to help their community as I presented them a couple of gifts from Tunza Eco-generation. It is amazing how young people can change their world when they are inspired to work together with a common vision and a change-seeking mind set. Enjoy the pictures below!    |
