To combat climate change: Organisation, SUHUCAM, educates pupils on tree planting benefits.

This was in an outreach campaign that took place recently at the esplanade of the school’s campus in Yaounde. It was in a bid to raise awareness among young people on the adverse effects of climate change and educate them on practical solutions as far as combatting the scourge is concerned.

At the end of the sensitisation campaign, the organisation donated 20 seedlings of sleeping willows and sour sop trees to the school, which were planted on the premises with the help of the pupils.

According to SUHUCAM, the activity came on the heels of the Global Landscapes Forum, GLF Africa 2024 watch party, where they pledged to carry out concrete actions on the field to enhance the agenda of greening the African horizon.

The organisation added that the exercise was also part of their ongoing efforts to address climate change by engaging teachers and students in practical climate action activities, like tree planting, while promoting the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs, specifically SDG 13 target 13.3 that reads: “Improve education, awareness raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning”.

SUHUCAM implored the over 150 pupils who took part in the event, as well as their teachers, not to be overwhelmed by the impacts of climate change, but rather focus on taking actions like respecting early warnings, planting trees and advocating for more adaptation measures.

Participants react 

The pupils of Blessed Bilingual Academy, at the end of the event, all expressed satisfaction with the exercise, and recommitted to taking more concrete actions to fight climate change. 

“I am happy to know that I can be a solution to climate change. I will join the environment club and together with my friends, we will plant more trees on our campus,” Peace Nghomboh, a class six pupil aged 10, said.

The Coordinator of SUHUCAM, Sunday Geofrey, disclosed that young people play an important role in solving the climate crisis and the organisation looks forward to carrying out the same exercise in other schools. 

Following the organisations request, the school administration accepted to create an environment club to continue with climate education and promoting environmental education among the pupils and students of the institution.

The organisation further recommended the integration of climate education into the schools curricula to ensure that students start learning about this important topic from a very tender age, and continue to develop their knowledge, passion and skills as they climb the rungs of the educational ladder. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No: 3261 of Wednesday October 16, 2024