First Lady launches model green park for children
. . . conservation efforts to curb social vices
ENVIRONMENT patron First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa yesterday launched a model children’s green park in Glen Norah in a development that will provide a serene place to relax, study and interact while connecting with nature.
The initiative is aimed at promoting environmental conservation while encouraging children to desist from engaging in social vices like drug abuse.
Children will also learn how nature and humans depend on each other and coexist while enjoying sporting activities in a pitch to be developed in the park.
The park also improves the area’s aesthetic value and inculcates in learners values, attitudes, skills and behavior consistent with sustainable development.
Such parks will be replicated in all provinces throughout the country to unlock immense benefits of learners and communities.
This is not the First time the First Lady has been involved with revamping recreational parks for the benefit of children after her Angel of Hope Foundation in 2019 constructed and handed over an amusement park to the Mbare community in Harare.
Yesterday’s launch of the children’s park comes at a time when most recreational facilities have been neglected, resulting in people dumping garbage at idle facilities.
The colourful launch brought together Government officials, champions of the environment, schoolchildren, community members, city council officials.
Led by the First Lady, the event started with a clean-up around the area and nearby communities before they cleaned the park and planted trees and flowers thus, beautifying it.
In her address, the First Lady, who is extensively involved in tree planting among many other environmental management programmes, spoke about the importance of conservation and warned children against drug abuse in her interactive session with them.
“It is a great honour for me to address you today where we are launching the Glen Norah Children’s Park. The establishment of this park is well in line with the Government programme of beautification of cities and towns through urban reforestation which seeks to increase access to green spaces by urban dwellers and promote cleanliness,” she said.
Green spaces, the First Lady said, have a range of positive effects on human, physical and mental well-being.
“Further, these spaces can provide foreign habitat for species, improve habitat connectivity, provide ecosystem services and help mediate extreme events such as flooding and heat waves. We envisage this park to be a model green park to be replicated on other cities and towns so as to improve their aesthetic value, mediate pollution, flooding and providing a serene environment for mental well-being of urban dwellers.
“The afforestation of this park will result in increase of various species of animals, birds and plants. This will provide children an opportunity to interact and connect with nature and learn how nature and humans depend on each other and can coexist. Children’s understanding of nature will also be facilitated through the development of a nature museum and a library. Children are tomorrow’s leaders hence the need to provide them an opportunity and enabling environment for them to inculcate values, attitudes, skills and behaviour consistent with sustainable development.
“I plead with all children to take the opportunity of spending your free time on this leisure park and many more that the Government is building up. Green spaces improve your health, mental wellness and bond with nature. I also encourage you to desist from the use of drugs which are destroying the lives of many children in our country. I therefore encourage that the young girls and boys be actively involved in climate sensitive projects such as greening the spaces and theatre in the park project with an environmental eye. This helps in maintaining and preserving the flora of tomorrow in Zimbabwe’s biodiversity economy. I encourage each and everyone of you to dwell on the motto: No drugs and dangerous substances,” she said.
Dr Mnangagwa hammered on the importance of sound environmental management practices, including the planting of trees.
“Together if we plant trees we stand healthy and beautify our safe havens. The Glen Norah community and the city of Harare at large, this is your park which you should be proud of. I encourage you to protect it jealously as this is your treasure and of generations to come. I therefore emphasise the need to build a new generation of responsible citizens through active children’s civic engagement in environmental management as evidenced by the tree planting initiatives and beautification of the ground spaces as has been done here so that we turn them into green, eye-catching and transformative spaces that our children are proud of.
“This leads to the raising of a new generation of people who are environmentally friendly. Based on my own work in environmental management, I am active in reforestation as it supports local cooling, storm water absorption and health benefits of urban trees for local residents however the potential for urban trees to appreciably mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution over a wide array of sites and environmental conditions is limited. We do not involve our children in the process. Ladies and gentlemen I would like to thank all the children who have been taking up tree planting initiatives in their schools and homes throughout the country. This is an inspiration to every Zimbabwean to actively engage in environmental protection initiatives. I would also like to extend my gratitude to all organisations that are contributing to the development of this great space and city beautification initiative,” she said.
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