NGO Trains Students On Environmental Sustainability

An Ondo State-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), Green Institute, has held training for youths on how to build a better environment through innovation.

The training with the theme: Disruptive innovation for social and environment impact, brought students drawn from various tertiary institutions across the country together to learn skills that could help improve environment.

Welcoming the participants, Campus Director of the NGO, Miss Odunayo Aliu, said the institute’s objective was to use education, advocacy and social entrepreneurship to drive environmental sustainability.

She said: “We have been training students, just like we are doing today, on using their innovation to help attain sustainability in environment. We are leveraging on education in driving this training. In our advocacy programme, we advocate for a sustainable environment and we train people to be social entrepreneurs, especially young people.

“We see no Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) as more important than the other, but climate action is like a binding force among all the goals. Because if we don’t have a good environment, and we are aiming at zero hunger, how can we achieve that? That is why Green Institute focuses on climate action, which urges people to take urgent actions to combat climate change and its impacts.”

Depicting how climate change had altered the natural composition of the environment, Odunayo noted that climate change occurred as a result of human activities. She said the institute, since inception, had been taken actions in creating serene environment in schools.

She said that the institute had trained over 5,000 youths nationwide and admitted about 518 into 45 courses on environment, including recycling that had led to removal of over 5,000 tons of wastes.

Participants took a pledge and promised to keep the environment sustainable. Facilitators at the event included the Executive Director of Climate Smart, Glory Oguegbu, founder of Tech4Dev, Joel Ogunsola, and Jennifer Uchendu of SustyVibes.

The training had about 50 participants drawn from Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Adeyemi College of Education (ACE), Ondo, and Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko (AAUA).

Other institutions included University of Lagos (UNILAG), Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH), University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) and University of Medical Sciences in Ondo.