(TheAfricanDream.net) — The Community Solutions Program (CSP) has launched a nonprofit initiative called ‘Environmental Information for All Project’ in Ghana to create awareness on environmental sustainability and climate change.
The CSP stands out as a professional leadership development for the best and brightest community leaders worldwide. The Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. Government and supported in its implementation by IREX.
This year, the Program supported two of its fellows – Mavis Okyere, a 2019 Community Solutions fellow and Otuo-Akyampong Boakye a 2021 fellow – from Ghana to launch the Environmental Information for All Project in two communities in the country.
Mavis while speaking at the launch of the project on June 10, 2022, in Juaso, Asante Akim South Municipality, eastern region, Ghana, indicated that most people in the country are involved in the agricultural chain and therefore the impacts of climate change such as droughts, changing rainfall patterns and water pollution have dire consequences.
Therefore, “the project will prioritise the United Nations sustainable development goal 6 and 13 which seek urgent actions towards climate change and people’s access to clean water and sanitation,” in the selected communities, said Mavis in her interview with theafricandream.net.
The project is powered by Eco-Warriors Movement and supported by CSP through a collaboration with Community Impact Grant Program (CIG), in Juaso and Kwahu-Fodoa, both in eastern region of Ghana.
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The launch was attended by students of the Juaso Methodist Junior High School, teachers, and some educationist in the municipality. The Project is expected to engage a minimum of sixty students in translating environmental sustainability information into audio and short video in three main languages and sign language for inclusion within a period of 5 months.
According to Mavis, “rural communities are often the hardest hit by extreme weather events because they least able to cope with and recover from climate change shocks,” indicating that “approximately 3.3 to 3.6 billion people live in the contexts that are highly vulnerable to climate change according to the intergovernmental panel on climate change.”
The Project shall consider the three top most environmental challenges specific to the communities and geographical area which shall be addressed with audio and video in 3 local languages.
“Our environment provided for us goodies like mangoes, coconut and pawpaw. As a child I remember we could gather and go fruit hunting because we had a lot of fruit trees in the community. I didn’t need alarm clock because the rhymes of the birds sang naturally to wake me up and got me refreshed for school,” said Mr. Otuo-Akyampong Boakye, Director of Eco-Warriors Movement, noting why he started green clubs in schools to enable the younger generation get educated on environmental sustainability.
“But what do we see now, trees are cut and forests destroyed in the name of development and urbanization .The question I ask myself is will my child enjoy the greenery I did growing up,” he added.
The Project according to Mavis will bridge this gap in a three phase developmental process targeted at high school students in the selected communities.
She indicated that the first phase of the project will involve environmental sustainability capacity building as this will involve forming green clubs in one Senior High school in Kwahu Fodoa in the Eastern Region of Ghana and the Juaso Methodist Junior high school to train and build capacity of the club members on environmental education.
She says the second phase shall be content development for audio and video materials, together with the club members and their patrons.
“We shall create interesting and real time content addressing specific environmental issues in the community. Three most pressing issues from the challenges earlier identified by the club members will form the content for the audio and video,” she said to theafricandream.net.
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The third phase of the project according to Mavis will be translating the developed content into local languages as learnt from the club members shall be grouped according to their native languages and tasked with translating the content earlier developed into their native language. She further revealed that a technical person shall be engaged to translate the environmental messages into sign language.
“The last phase would be the premiering and sharing of the content produced in the project, we shall organize a session in the schools whose club members developed the content and translated it. The second premier shall be in collaboration with the community leaders and youth group to premier at the community center for the whole community,” she said to theafricandream.net
She then urged everyone to be ambassadors of change in their communities to help protect and safeguard their environment.
Source: TheAfricanDream.net
Abeeb Lekan Sodiq is a Managing Editor & Writer at theafricandream.net. He is as well a Graphics Designer and also known as Arakunrin Lekan.
