The Daily Observer (Banjul)
Jakong Jabbi
3 November 2009
The series of activities marking the Global Week of Climate Action, Global Unification-Gambia(GU-Gambia), recently wrapped up the celebration with a march past which ended up in a rally and a musical concert, involving school children and representatives from various youth groups.
The celebration started on Thursday 22nd of October, with a tree planting exercise at Kotu Senior Secondary School. The exercise saw the massive involvement of the students, being coordinated by the GU volunteers and the school's teachers. Speaking at the occasion, the GU national representative, Ebrima Dem, explained the motive behind the tree planting and the climate week celebration in general.
He said the exercise is on one hand in support of the presidential school tree planting initiative and directly because of the significance of trees in mitigating climate change and environmental degradation. He disclosed that the reason GU chose to carry out the exercise in Kotu Senior Secondary School is because of the greenery of the school ground.
This, Dem indicated, is as result of the school's consciousness in climate change and the need for environmental preservation. He finally thanked all the participants while specifically expressing appreciation to the sponsors of the weeklong celebration. These included Banjul Breweries, DBC, 350.org, Dept of Forestry, as well as the individual donors.
The celebration gained momentum on Friday, 23rd of October, 2009 with a symposium on the theme: 'Climate Action begins with me' held at the KMC grounds. It was attended by students, youth groups and policy makers. Essa Khan, director of the Disaster Management Agency, presenting a paper on 'climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies in Gambia' disclosed the Agency's plan to involve young people and school children in particular in their disaster management and mitigation policies.
For his part, Facuru Sillah, coordinator of the Youth OAU/AU, delved into the role of youth in influencing policies on climate change in The Gambia. He talked about the relevance of the formation of civil society organizations by young people that will advocate policies and resolutions on climate change and environmental issues.
Susan, the VSO at TANGO, reiterated the need for governments and relevant institutions to prioritize environmental preservation and climate change issues and emphasised the need for young people to be involved in climate change mitigation process. The occasion ended in a question and answer session and a short video on climate change.
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