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ECHO plans final children’s seminar

Nov 09, 2010 News

– Gears to introduce ‘Green Ambassadors Programme’

The notion that a clean and healthy environment is vital to the development of local communities and the wider society will be emphasised this weekend when the Environmental Community Health Organisation (ECHO) hosts its final children’s seminar on Saturday.
The event, which is set for Cara Lodge, Quamina Street, Georgetown, is intended to bring all eco-club members up-to-date on the work of the organisation, according to ECHO National Coordinator, Georgina Lewis.
According to her, the forum will serve to encourage the children who will be in attendance to remain environmentally alert and helpful to the natural environment.
It was in 2007 that ECHO kicked into motion clubs in local schools in Regions Three, Four and Ten.
And according to Lewis, club activities have ranged from tree planting, anti-litter campaigns, to other awareness programmes in all local communities in which these groups are located.
Groups of enthusiastic environmentally concerned and socially committed students between eight and 12 years are chosen to form ECHO Clubs and to take leadership on issues affecting the sustainable development of their natural environment.
It is the view of ECHO that children can be involved in processes in which they become change agents in their local communities.
And in an effort to bolster the efforts, she revealed that ECHO is poised to launch another level of the school project which will be dubbed a ‘Green Ambassadors Programme’. This project, she said, will be introduced in High Schools and the local communities.
And at the seminar, it was planned that the organisation will introduce sports as another activity that could boost environmental and community health.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), health promotion is the process of enabling people to take greater control over the conditions that affect their health. This definition has shaped the approach of health promotion, shifting it from a lifestyle approach to one that accounts for a more participatory socio-ecological approach, according to Lewis.
The definition by WHO places great emphasis on community health, and participation of communities as key health promotion strategies. Although there are different levels of community participation, all of them recognise and build on the strengths of, and participation within the community, and assume that community members know best what their problems are and what solutions will work for them.
However, within the field of environmental and health promotion, children have not been much encouraged to think about conditions that affect the health of their environment and their own health, Lewis added.
“Our view is that, we must not only work for children but with them. They should be allowed to participate in environmental and social conditions that affect their lives. Climate change will influence social and other conditions that will affect the lives of our children.
“As a result, ECHO continues to engage and involve youths in schools and communities to work with and give them space to express their views and come up with solutions to care for and protect the environment.”
It is Lewis’s belief that young people are articulate and ready to participate in their communities, thus the need to engage various programmes to keep them stimulated and alert of varying ways to help protect their environment.

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