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Children call for action on climate change

By Eniola Daniel
13 October 2019   |   3:37 am
Following the example of 16-year-old environmental activist, Greta Thunberg, who gained international recognition through her campaign to bring the attention of world leaders

Following the example of 16-year-old environmental activist, Greta Thunberg, who gained international recognition through her campaign to bring the attention of world leaders, especially the US government to the danger of climate change, the pupils of Banana Island School, Ikoyi, Lagos have called for urgent action on putting an end to the use of plastic bags.

The children demonstrated their support for the World Climate Action campaign across the world during a recent visit to Shoprite in Lekki, where they delivered specially handwritten letters to the organisation, appealing to it to stop using plastic bags.

The school’s Head Teacher, Moulin Marriot, who led the pupils, aged five to nine on the visit, explained that the organisation was picked because it is one of the places that heavily rely on the use of plastic bags. He said the call became necessary, as the world has experienced significant rise in global warming.

She said: “In the last few months, young people have really impressed us. They’ve taken this action to try and galvanise everybody to think about the future. Our children want to encourage people to stop using plastic bags in Nigeria. The beach and everywhere are full of unrecyclable plastic bags.

“The children are studying the environment. So, we thought, why don’t we write Shoprite, as they have a lot of shops in Nigeria. They’re one of the biggest users of carrier bags. If we use that as a hook to get the children interested in writing something that they care passionately about, it will be a fantastic opportunity. They designed the posters.”

All the children brought their own reusable cloth bags for shopping at the store. Eight-year-old Tsemaya Muoyo said: “We want the world to change and we are advising Shoprite to change plastics bags to paper and cloth, because paper can decompose and gives a healthy environment.” 1, celebrated Nigeria’s 59th Independence with diverse Nigerian and Indian cultural dances and other educational activities.

Organised by Urja Foundation, an Indian organisation, the event held at Ilupeju and had over 100 children engage in choreography, dance, music and drama.

Commending the children, the founder of the organisation, Rukhi Mitra, said: “Extra curricular activities enhance academic performance in children. This is why we do not just give them gifts, food and drinks, but also engage them in educational activities, including sports.”

She disclosed that the foundation has awarded scholarships to about 30 indigent children in the last five years, adding that the yearly event, aside celebrating Nigeria, aims at supporting indigent people in the society, put smiles on their faces, while they also showcase their talents like other children.

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