In Zarqa, young people teach children about the environment
“Because they are the future.”
- English
- العربية
The UNICEF-supported Sawn programme is all about youth engagement and leadership in climate action. At the last stage of the programme and following extensive training and capacity building, the Sawn Leaders, numbering 36 young people, design and lead climate-related advocacy initiatives in Jordan’s 12 governorates.
In Zarqa, 23-year-old Ruba’s “Climate Friends” initiative had one audience in mind: children. The initiative’s goal was to educate children about climate change at an early age. The activities, many of them in the form of fun games, introduce children to different climate-related concepts such as greening and recycling.
“We targeted this age group because children are the future,” Ruba explains. “Whatever they learn from an early age can have an impact on their actions for the rest of their lives.”
The youth wanted to share one main message with the children. “We taught them that if we take care of the environment, the environment will take care of us,” Ruba adds.
“I really liked it when the teacher made a small toy out of a plastic cup. I never saw anything like that before!”
For a while now, 23-year-old Mahdi has felt frustration over the global inaction in the era of a changing climate. He is particularly concerned about the environmental challenges facing his local community, adding: “in Zarqa, the air quality is only getting worse, heavy with smoke from the factories. The issue of trash is also getting more serious as we see trash everywhere we look.”
Still, Mahdi feels keen to act. Being selected as a Sawn Youth Climate Leader offered him an opportunity for action and joining like-minded people. Co-leading the initiative with Ruba has been particularly meaningful for Mahdi. It helped him grow as a person and, as he says, made him feel a sense of responsibility and a glimpse of hope that when people come together, they can create change.
“I encourage the youth of Jordan to learn about the environment and volunteer to protect it when they can. We care about our Jordan, and that should drive us to preserve its environment,” he adds.
The Sawn programme is a partnership between the Ministry of Youth, the Ministry of Environment and UNICEF, and is implemented by Generations for Peace. It is generously supported by the Kingdom of the Netherlands through the PROSPECTS partnership.
