First environmental school club launched at St Margaret’s Primary

Sep 24, 2009 News

With the launch of the first ever Environmental Community Health Organisation (ECHO) Club at the St Margaret’s Primary School yesterday, it is anticipated that environmental stewardship will be well promoted.

ECHO launches its first club at St Margaret’s Primary yesterday

ECHO’s Chairman, Royston King, and Director of Administration, Claudette Fredericks, were on hand yesterday to officially launch the club in the school’s library in the presence of teachers and the 25 students who have been selected to be a part of it.

According to King the launch of such an initiative will undoubtedly lend to more environmentally friendly activities.

“We are launching the first ECHO club in Georgetown. This is the first of its kind in the city and I suspect in our nation,” King speculated. He disclosed that the idea behind the venture is not only to raise awareness of environmental issues but also to allow the children to take leadership on environmental issues or issues that affect the development of the natural environment.

“We believe that if we can work with the children and help them understand and appreciate the beauty and the value of our natural environment then we are on our way to having a good fight against climate change.

“Unless our children are properly fed with information and knowledge then we will not be able to empower them to fight against climate change.”

It has been deduced, King said, that climate change is a direct result of the way people have been treating the environment thus the need for more environmental stewardship. For this reason, he said that there is a growing importance for essential environmental information to be disseminated to and inculcated by the children within the ECHO club.

As such a two-day training programme slated for October 14 and October 21 will be held to educate them about solid waste management and water purification which will be facilitated by officials from ECHO and the Pan American Health Organisation.

According to King the school has already been supplied with receptacles and faucets that are intended to aid the training process.

“We want to train them in the basics and we are hoping that it spills out of the school over into the wider environment, in the local communities, where we can see a cleaner and healthier city and by extension a cleaner and healthier all-round environment.”

A supply of reading materials have also been handed over to the St Margaret’s Library and will serve to encourage the children to read and understand about the environment in order to get an appreciation of the measures to be put in place, King noted.

Clubs will also be shortly introduced at the J. E. Burnham, Stella Maris, St Andrews Kirk and Agricola primary schools. Another three clubs will also be initiated at the Meten-Meer-Zorg, Cornelia Ida and Leonora Primary Schools on the West Coast of Demerara.

The clubs, King said will include a leader, deputy leader and a secretary who will be responsible for giving leadership to the group. The group in turn will be tasked with offering leadership to the school as it relates to environmental issues.

The idea of the club was unveiled by ECHO last term in selected schools with a view of improving environmental education. King had disclosed recently that the overall aim of the initiative is to involve local communities in the conservation of biodiversity and natural resources commencing through the school system.

He related that with the assistance of PAHO, the clubs will be able to unleash a number of activities which will not only formalise the clubs in schools but also engage activities intended to meet outlined objectives.

Among the objectives of ECHO clubs King said is to create awareness of biodiversity conservation and local environmental issues among school children; to create a clean and green consciousness among students through various innovative methods; to involve ECHO Club students in open-orientation programmes in schools and public areas.

In the first phase of the initiative this term, students will plant tree saplings on the school premises in a bid to add some green to their school environment. And as part of the continued effort to raise students’ awareness, King said that one-day environmental education programmes will also be held exclusively for ECHO Club students.

All members he said will be brought together and briefed with a short introduction about the environment, an explanation of ECHO Club goals, a slide show on the importance of the forest, a video on environmental health, as well as an overall description of the present status and future threats to the forest.

These activities will be complemented by discussions and interactions between the students and environmental educators, a move which is aimed at encouraging students to write imaginatively about their experiences, according to King.

“The strength of the one-day programmes is that, for many students, it will be their first time out of the classroom in a more informal learning environment. For them it will be an unusual and exciting experience. It is important for us to treat each student as our friend and encourage him or her to interact with us freely,” King related.