Young Environmentalists of Madapdap, Mabalacat City

Marjorie B. Cudal

Madapdap is a small community located in Mabalacat City known for its natural green parks. These parks are area for recreation and enjoyment for all ages. In order to preserve the natural beauty and cleanliness of the park, the students from Madapdap Resettlement Senior High School through the guidance of the teachers made an initiative to maintain the clean and green status of the community. The Youth for Environment Organization (YES-O) and their adviser Mrs. Pilar G. Pena spearheaded a cleanup drive in partnership with the Sangguniang Kabataan conducted the clean-up drive which was scheduled last February 15, 2020. The Sangguniang Kabataan provided snacks for the students who volunteered to clean the parks in Madapdap. Aside from cleaning the area, the plan is to restore the playground in the parks since most of them are nonfunctional. The said clean-up drive supposed to be a continuous activity of the students but it was postponed due to the covid-19 pandemic crisis.

High amount of daily garbage generation is one of perennial problems that we are facing. To address such problem, it was proposed first to start the practice of lessening the garbage produced daily in school. This school-based competition, “cleanest classroom” was implemented to monitor the daily waste or garbage generation and maintaining the cleanliness of each classroom. Each classroom was evaluated and awarded quarterly to the cleanest classroom.

In addition, students of Madapdap Resettlement Senior High School donated medicinal plants, fruit-bearing seeds and edible crops which could be planted in the school garden. This initiative is a support to the continuous project of all public schools which is the Gulayan sa Paaralan. These plants were propagated to be used by the students in the field of research of the STEM or even in cooking especially in the Technical Vocational Strand. Through these activities, the students transformed into young environmentalists that helps in the preservation and maintaining the beauty of nature.

The author is Teacher

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III at Madapdap Resettlement Senior High School