St Patrick’s School’s committment towards a clean environment

5 June marked world Environment Day – the United Nations’ principal vehicle for encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the environment. This day is celebrated globally in different ways, big and small. It is a day in which we remind ourselves and others of the importance of caring for our environment and that any action taken adds to the collective voice on environmental awareness. St Patrick’s Salesian School commemorated World Environment Day on 28 May by co-ordinating a clean-up day around Sliema, partnering with the EkoSkola Malta – thanks to Cynthia Caruana and Elizabteh Agius, Nature Trust, Sliema local council, St Joseph Senior School – thanks to Ruth Calleja, St Joseph Junior School – thanks to Graziella Caruana and Boys Secondary Sliema – thanks to Paul Brincat. Students from St Patrick’s EkoSkola committee wanted to highlight the positive impact each and every one can have on the environment by taking individual and collective action. The idea behind the clean-up was to promote community action as the key to longterm environmental change. The launch of the campaign took place at St Patrick’s School with a detailed programme including presentations about waste separation, a short clip produced by the students themselves aimed to raise awareness about the impact that waste mismanagement can have and a song aimed to inform everyone of the how and why we need to separate waste. Later on, as a symbolic gesture, before the launch, one student from each school read environmental messages to raise awareness on the importance of taking care of our environment. During the morning the students left the school towards Sliema Tower for the clean-up. All the students and staff involved made a great effort to collect as much waste as they could throughout the walk. An hour later everyone gathered at Tigne with all the bags of collected waste. Thanks to the team effort, 14.3kgs of recyclable waste and 10.5kgs of other waste was collected, adding to a total of 24.8kgs of waste. Celebrating World Environment Day together with other schools made us even more aware of the inspirational power of individual actions that collectively become an exponential force for positive change. This activity served as an inspiration and empowerment to individuals and communities from every corner of the locality to make their environment a cleaner, healthier place to live. If we all take responsibility for the well-being of our environment at a personal and community level we can contribute to the global effort. Every effort counts!