Youthful nature lovers hope to save planet from perils of climate change

With little steps and a great dream, 15 high school students in Garissa town hope to preserve the earth from the perils of climate change.

The high school students participate in tree planting, waste management, climate change drama and poetry, and raising awareness in schools and communities.

The team, led by Imran Hassan, a 16-year-old from Garissa National Secondary School was inspired after two of their officials attended the African Youth Climate Summit in Nairobi in 2023.

Imran and Aisharoon Mohamed were sponsored by the Save The Children Organisation in Garissa to attend the summit held at Kenyatta International Convention Centre, where they got exposure to platforms that showcased global solutions, innovations, and projects aimed at mitigating climate change challenges.

Imran and Aisharoon shared information with the rest of the group on the threat of climate change in Garissa.

“We got insights that we are in an environment that was under extreme challenge, we come from a community that is facing endless drought and floods that are attributed to climate change,” he said.

The two group leaders said they mobilised students from private and public secondary schools, discussing the idea with them and providing a name for a community-based organisation (CBO).

Imran stated they engaged in several meetings to discuss agendas and activities that would help to address the threats of climate change. Among various names suggested, they unanimously settled for Vision Green Globe as their preferred name for the proposed CBO.

“Registration of the CBO and rolling out tree planting activities in various institutions as our first initial steps became our top priority without knowing the challenges ahead to register our CBO,” he claimed.

The members sent four officials to the Garissa Social and Culture office to register their new CBO, but they were requested to show three of their officials’ national identity cards and the new members’ national identity card numbers for registration.

Hamdi Noor, one of the groups’ officials, said they were frustrated by the requirements since they were all underaged high school students with no national identity cards.

“We requested that the officer in charge be lenient and allow us to use the identity cards of our parents or our student cards as an alternative to help us achieve our dream,” she said.

Hamdi said they were instructed to postpone CBO enrollment until they received their national identity cards, as the prerequisite was a stringent government policy.

“The mood from our members on the information we relayed was not good, since they had high hopes to meet us having a certificate with the proposed name Vision Green Hope printed on it,” Hamdi said.

The members agreed to continue with the calendar activities that included tree planting and meeting local non-governmental organisations, banking institutions, and the county department of environment for support to help them achieve their tree planting mission of planting more than 10,000 trees before the end of this year.

Aisharoon, the deputy team leader of the group, said they identified Equity Bank as a potential partner since they were supporting many needy students with bursaries.

“We approached the Garissa branch bank manager, and he supported us with 28 trees as our first activity towards the tree planting programme aimed to reduce the challenges of climate change,” she told The Eastleigh Voice.

The young environmental activist selected the Garissa Children Rescue Centre in Garissa town to plant 28 trees donated by the bank as their first tree planting activity before engaging more at various institutions.

In addition, students took part in the World Environment Day celebration and national tree planting event, which took place in the Madogashe Municipality in Garissa County. They planted trees at the Madogashe Girls Secondary School and performed plays and poetry about the effects of climate change and mitigation strategies.

“We sent invitations, and mobilised the officials to engage them on our vision and activity calendar and promised to support us,” said Ruweida Aden a member from Al Anzar Secondary School.

Mulki Dekow, Garissa County Director of Environment, told The Eastleigh Voice that the young environmentalist organisation had a huge dream, an unshakeable devotion, and was dedicated to saving the earth for future generations.

“I had the pleasure to engage them and I was amazed with the ideas from the young environmental advocates, they are unique and, I wish all the community members had such passion for nature,” Mulki said.

Mulki described how she was astounded by their request to register a CBO and how they were barred owing to a lack of national identification cards because they were underage.

She went to the registration office to see if she could help register the group using her national identity card and serve as a patron, but three active members were required.

The Garissa County environment director stated that she was pleased to meet with young environmentalists committed to environmental stewardship and conservation and that their perspectives will influence a region already dealing with the repercussions of an acute climate shock.

“Already we have felt their impact in tree planting, town cleaning exercise and creating awareness on climate change during social gathering events,” she said.

She continued “How many of us ever thought of registering CBO while still in high school, our imaginations and thinking capacity were not beyond joining school clubs but not an idea such as this one.”

Aden Ahmed, a former student at the Garissa Secondary School and a member of the young environmentalist group is using the TikTok platform to advance the group’s vision.

“I have created content including poems and other activities of the group that currently I was using to popularise through our Tiktok account that is yet to gain fame,” he said.

He further stated that they were discouraged from using cell phones at school and home which remains a challenge to popularise the group but he anticipates the time will come to achieve their dream.

Aden described how most members were from families who abandoned pastoralism and eventually moved to Garissa when their livestock was decimated by drought cycles.

When asked if they had school patrons guiding them, he stated that their mission extended beyond school, and the group chose to engage environmental experts and organisations outside of school to help them establish contacts that will eventually help them register the organisation and establish an office where they can continue to achieve their dream after completing their high school education.