By Deji Abdulwahab
Abuja – Educate a Woman Initiative (EWI), an NGO says it has created awareness on environmental sanitation and encouraged tree planting in 10 schools in Oyo State.
The Executive Director of EWI, Mrs Rebecca Aderele, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Thursday that the project was executed in Lagelu and Akinyele Local Government Areas of the state.
Aderele said that this was with a view to promoting environmental sanitation and inculcating habit of tree-planting.
She said that the organisation got a grant of 47,083 dollars from Global Environmental Facility Small Grant Programme to encourage best practices in schools and communities on environmental sanitation and tree planting.
The executive director said that EWI had set up Eco-Clubs with 20 students as members in each of the schools under the project encompassing environmental sanitation, tree planting and the use of coal briquettes to cook meals.
According to her, the project has been able to mobilise students to plant and nurse over 3,000 economic trees in their schools.
Aderele said that EWI was supported to educate secondary school students and communities about environmental sanitation and the importance of tree planting.
She said that the project was titled, “Strengthening the resilience of rural livelihoods and promoting environmental education among young people in Oyo State’’.
According to her, EWI has been able to maximise the grant to create awareness and improve knowledge on environment education and protection among students and other stakeholders in the communities.
She said that it had also facilitated the distribution of Information Education and Communication materials in the target schools and communities.
“A baseline research carried out by EWI revealed the ignorance on climate change issues and land degradation in the project communities.
“We also succeeded in forming eco-clubs in the schools and getting the full support and commitment of their teachers and other key stakeholders.
“The target stakeholders have been adequately trained on various aspects of the environment and its protection.
“All schools branded with environmental education messages and various seedlings have been planted and raised in selected schools and communities,’’ she said.
The executive director expressed satisfaction with the progress in the execution of the project even though it took so much persistence and perseverance to overcome some hurdles in the formation of Eco-clubs.
“Technical expertise for the cost effective production of briquettes and briquette fabrication machine and briquette stoves took a while but with persistent efforts on our part we have been able to achieve success,’’ she said.
(NAN)