From Magnus Eze, Enugu

Chisimdi Nnaji is a JSS2 student of Uzam Community Secondary School, Amaechi Idodo, in Nkanu East Local Government Area of Enugu State. He is one of the 50 young “soldiers” being raised in the area for the protection and preservation of the environment.

Two non-governmental organisations, Children’s Climate Literacy Project (CCLP) and Refuge Foundation (RF), are taking climate change campaign to children in various communities of Enugu State.

After a climate change and displacement workshop for kids on June 1, 2024, Nnaji and other participants spoke to Daily Sun on what the programme meant to them.

He said: “I learned that we are the cause of our problems and that we can reduce them by not burning our waste. We can recycle it and we can use it again for other purposes.”

Nnaji said, from what he learnt, he will become a crusader for the environment, “telling people to stop burning bottles and plastics because it is causing problems for us.”

Like Nnaji, Mbah Iroabuchi Joshua, a Primary Six participant from Uzam Community Primary School 2, Amaechi Idodo, said, “It is not good to burn refuse,” because, according to him, “the smoke will go to the sky and form heavy rain and cause flood.”

He equally pledged that he would take the message home to his siblings, mother and friends, not to burn refuse because of the implications.

In the same manner, Ogbu Oluoma, a JSS 2 student of City Comprehensive Secondary School, Amaechi Idodo, said she would help to mitigate climate change by “reducing bush burning, throwing bottles and plastics recklessly.”

One of the facilitators of the programme and founder of Children’s Climate Literacy Project, Mrs. Ify Evangel Obim, explained the essence of the exercise even as she noted that she was amazed at the brilliance displayed by the children.

Emphasising that the watchword phrase “Green Everywhere,” Obim, who took the children through the causes of climate change and its effects, also outlined how to mitigate it.

The environmental activist harped on what she termed 3 Rs, meaning-Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. She also guided the children in practical demonstration of tree planting.

“We are advocating for solar in our houses and our offices because, when we burn fossil fuel, when we cut down trees, we are causing climate change. But we are saying that we don’t want more trees to be cut, rather, we should be doing re-forestation, we should be planting more of trees. And so, today, we taught the children how to do the 3 Rs. We reduce, we reuse, we recycle and we have been able to recycle our plastic today. And so, we told them that instead of burning the plastics, they should reuse it. Today, we used it to plant trees, we planted palm trees, we planted corn and beans. So, the children should go ahead and be planting so that everywhere will be green because the more trees we have around us, the fresher air we have and our temperature will be normal.

“We have done this before in other schools. We have hosted it in Nsukka LGA where we taught children about climate literacy and how to mitigate climate change in our environment. We have done several of them in Nsukka LGA but this is the first in Nkanu East and we plan to do more because we can’t stop until green is everywhere, green is our motto; everywhere green, let’s go green.

“I was so impressed on the performance of the children, some of them gave me answers I didn’t expect, I didn’t even know they would be able to recollect and then keep tabs as I was teaching. They really impressed me and they went away with wonderful gifts,” she said in an interview with Daily Sun.

Programme officer of Refuge Foundation, Mrs. Ukamaka Udegbunam, said the collaboration for the training was inspired by the fact that climate effects, sometimes lead to displacement of people or communities.

She explained that a lot of challenges such as climate effects, conflict, diseases, famine and drought push people into displacement, stressing that Refuge Foundation was establish to look into the mitigating factors of displacement and how to assist displaced people.

“In a place like Amaechi Idodo, they have issues of flood. As a result, we came to the community to assist the community members, catching them young, giving training to the children. This was supposed to be a training for the Children’s Day celebration but due to one challenge or the other, we postponed it to June 1.

“So, the collaboration was to assist these children to know the relevance of mitigating climate change in their community, to assist them because nobody wants to be displaced, nobody wants to leave his/her home for any difficulty or challenge. We trained about 51 children today in order to curb its effects and within the training they were given lessons on tree planting, which is one of the means to mitigate climate change,” Udegbunam said.

She further explained that the village heads, on the instruction of the traditional ruler of Ohuani Amechi Idodo, Igwe Hyacinth Edeani, nominated at least five children each for the programme.

Igwe Edeani, who is chairman, Nkanu East Traditional Rulers’ Council, said the palace threw its weight behind the programme because of the importance of the campaign.

He acknowledged that giving children climate literacy was the most effective way of addressing the issue.

The monarch also suggested that the organisers should approach the traditional institutions across the states, enlighten them on the issue and enlist their buy-in in the climate change campaign. 

“Climate change is a serious problem all over the world. Some said it’s depletion of ozone layer. Whether it’s a depletion of the ozone layer, whether it’s emission from the machines, cars and all that, something should be done because it has to do with our lives and what they have come to do for these children, catching them young will help to change the narrative.

“At times, I begin to wonder why people die anyhow. This may be part of it because the way people fell trees, the way people disorganize their areas is terrible and we’ve been taught today to plant trees all over the place. I hope it will be replicated in other local governments; I hope it will be replicated in all the states so that we become aware as early as possible.

“Maybe the adults too should know because the children are okay and, as they grow, they grow with it but those of us who are adults should also have their own seminar since we are ignorant. We are ignorant of the effect of climate change and we are the cause. It is human beings that help to cause this menace. “These days, if it rains in the morning and sun comes out in the afternoon, it will seem as if it has not rained, it will be as hot as ever and this kind of thing will help to cushion the effect of the hot weather. So, I appreciate them in a very special way, maybe I will ask them to come again to sensitize the adults,” the traditional ruler stated.

The highpoint of the programme was the presentation of gifts/prizes to some of the children who answered questions satisfactorily during the programme.