In a bid to sensitize youths to be advocate of good and conducive environment, a Non-Governmental Organization, Environmental Rights Action, ERA, Friends of the Earth Nigeria, FoEN, has trained 159 youths on environmental degradation, field monitoring and reporting.
Mr. Eghosa Ogbebor, Grant Manager, ERA, FoEN, Speaking during the programme held at Wellington Hotel, Effurun, Uvwie Local Government Area, Delta State, said the project implementation started in 2018 and will end in 2022, adding that It has three stages, the school education, youth entrepreneurship and youth organizer.
Speaking further he said the target is to train ten thousand youths, “so far we have trained over 5000 youths. The project is being funded by a Norwegian Organization that was put together by some group of children in Norway who felt that activities of oil companies have actually devastated the world environment and they felt that there were needs for the youths to be sensitized so as to be advocate of good and conducive environment.
“ERA, FoEN was part of the programme when it for a competition and was selected among the over 500 persons that applied for it. The school project is to create awareness and sensitization and to set up school clubs which ERA, FoEN did.
“We are trying to set up Over 60 school clubs in Edo, Delta, Rivers and Bayelsa states and also we are trying to create environmental manual, and also have some components in the curriculum. In view of that, we are working with the ministry of education and environment to ensure that the outcome of what is in the manual is added to the school curriculum.
“On the youth entrepreneurship, in this we want to build the entrepreneurial skill of our younger ones. On the youth organizer, we want them to be familiar with environmental laws, speak with one voice amongst others.
Comrade Efegbare Okeoghene, representatives of ERA, FoEN in Delta State and the speakers, Mr. Azakaza Onajite and Mrs. Elo Agofure, who spoke in same vein, said the training created avenue for the youths in the project communities as well as young friends of the earth member to learn theoretical fact on global environment.
They added that the youths were taken for practical site seeing; where they were told by people they interacted with that the oil spill site seen were as a result of human activities which took place in the community, and affected their means of livelihood.
