| Children’s Category Honorable Mention
How Can I Foster Sustainable Development in My Community.
(Original)
Lynnette Penjueli
(Age 11, Fiji Islands)
Deenbandhoo Memorial Primary School, Suva
The environment is very precious to everyone and should be taken care of daily.
My community is made up of people from different races and culture but we all have one thing in common and that is to keep our environment clean at all times. It was not always like this when we first moved to our area 2 years ago.
The change came about when we started having flooded homes last year. This always happened when there was very heavy rainfall. Last year we the kids in our area decided to do a “clean-up” of our area every weekend. We found that the creek running behind our homes and drains on the roadside was blocked with rubbish. People and even us kids were disposing of our rubbish carelessly. When we as a group of kids got together and started cleaning some of our elders in the area would come out and help at times. This was very productive because now when ever there is heavy rainfall the few homes that were usually flooded are not flooded anymore because the creek running behind flows through easily and the drains are kept clean as well.
We decided to start our own little gardens behind our homes just to see if it worked and disposed of our “food waste” as manure for our little gardens. After a couple of months the vegetables we planted started to sprout. We now grow our own beans, baigan, tomatoes, chilllie and dalo root crops. This not only helps our family’s income but it is fresh as well.
The children in our area found that when we communicate to our parents the importance of healthy living and hygiene they in turn communicate this to other parents in other areas during their church get-togethers or at community meetings for their own cultures.
Educating people by word of mouth and deed will help keep our environment clean and well looked after.
This may be a very small project to other people but in my view the small things in life do count to make a big difference in future. We are now able to feed our families with fresh vegetables daily and also save my parents and others some money in the long run towards their daily budgets. Also our environment is always kept clean because we are disposing our rubbish carefully. Recycling of our own food waste is useful in our own backyard gardens. |
