Fight vs climate change continues
Schools in South Africa have been designating students as “eco-warriors” as part of an initiative supported by the UN Development Programme, to drive environmental and climate change awareness among the young and old in their communities.
The youthful warriors have supported rubbish clean-up campaigns around their schools, eliminating over 1,000 illegal dumping sites.
Other students have established agricultural cooperatives and learned how to farm sustainably in the face of the effects of climate change and the degradation of the environment.
The project was inaugurated by hosting a climate change summit with 300 youth in attendance, and showcasing their work on climate change and greening initiatives.
Subsequently eco-warriors were identified in each school to drive environmental awareness initiatives in their communities.
The eco-warriors chosen were from schools with preexisting FLC collaborations; each school has five such warriors who represent the school in environmental programs and recruit other learners within the school.
These warriors play an important role in keeping their schools environmentally-friendly, and perform clean-up campaigns in and around their schools.
As part of the Climate Change Warriors Project, FLC supported communities and schools in semi-urban, rural, and urban areas, organizing five clean up campaigns and eliminating illegal rubbish dump sites.
Cumulatively, these clean-up campaigns assisted in the removal of 1,020 illegal dumping sites.
Cleaning of the coastlines in specific was a major target of these campaigns. As such, FLC conducted two clean-up campaigns (of its five total campaigns) in support of South Africa’s national coastline clean-up.
As part of these campaigns, additional awareness raising was conducted by FLC, delivered to participating communities with assistance from
Durban Solid Waste.