Nepal: An environmental awareness campaign
Lately, our MasterPeace Club in Nepal has been focusing on Sustainable Development Goal three: good health and well-being. One of the subjects that they touch upon is the importance of good environmental conditions and therefore environmental awareness. As this is not a regular discussed subject within Nepalese schools, MasterPeace Nepal decided to start a project about it themselves.
It is all about changing mindsets.
The first session on this topic started on the first of March for youth in the Dhading area. Over fifty students of the Shree Janata Primary school joined, and asked questions like: Why is it important to have a clean environment? What are ways to keep our environment clean and green? And how can we protect it? The trainers of the program were older students and representatives from Peace4People Nepal.
Nepal’s education system mostly focuses on theory. Teachers do not teach students about environmental problems. They also do not teach children how you can keep the environment clean. The trainers of MasterPeace Nepal gave tips on the reuse of plastic bottles, importance of throwing away garbage in a bin and not on the streets, and helped teachers and children to build awareness about why a clean environment is important for healthy lives.
Project context
The capital of Nepal, Kathmandu, is in the top ten most polluted cities of our world. Within this list, Kathmandu is ranked as the seventh most polluted city in the world. The environmental problems include issues as pollution, effects of overpopulation, deforestation, energy and a lack of species conservation. However, the most urgent problem is pollution. There’s a lot of garbage that people leave on the streets and along the riverbanks. It causes extreme health dangers for the people who reside nearby these polluted places. Next to that, there are a lot of old vehicles that lack maintenance and there is no good waste management. Environmental pollution is increasing day by day.
MasterPeace Nepal and Peace4People started this environmental awareness program as Nepali people are not aware of these environmental problems. Via their youth they hope to convey a message to both the children as their families that it is important to take care of your surroundings, so Nepali can keep enjoying their beautiful nature.
Project impact
- Training fifty students in one day.
- Creating awareness about the importance of a clean environment.
- Giving students ideas about how to reduce and reuse plastic.
