By Joy Baba – Yesufu
Teens Connect Africa founder, Ms. Anne Obize has urged residents of Zuba and its surroundings to adopt tree planting and maintain cleanliness in their environments to prevent airborne and communicable diseases.
Ms. Obize gave the charge during a “Child Community Advocacy on Climate Change Awareness and Tree Planting” event held in Zuba, a suburb of Abuja.
At the event which was organized in partnership with Save the Children International(SCI), Nigeria, she emphasized the organization’s mission to empower young people to become productive contributors to community development and the overall progress of Nigeria.
“We initiated this program after witnessing the significant impact of a major flood in Zuba in 2022, which caused loss of lives and properties. “We further identified various challenges in the community, including climate change, flooding, pollution, and social issues like restiveness and cultism. Our goal is to engage young people, expose them to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and inspire them to become change-makers.”
As part of their initiative, the organization also launched the “Keep Zuba Clean” project.
The teenagers involved in the program and actively participated in community outreach to encourage residents to take ownership of their environment by keeping it clean and also distributed disposable waste bins to facilitate this effort.
The teenagers were part of the team that went into the Zuba communities to sensitize them that, “ this Zuba is our community, no other persons will keep it clean for us but we need to do it ourselves.”
Also speaking, Health and Nutrition Advocacy Assistant, SCI, Faith Osaretin, said the children in Zuba community have been affected by climate change in different ways, adding that some of them have been affected by flood and their houses and books were washed away while some of their houses were leveled.
Osaretin further said one of the interventions Save the Children is planning to do is to buy text books for the children especially those that have lost their books due to this climate crisis.
“Another major climate crisis the children are even complaining about is the waste management in Zuba, they want proper waste management in their community. The community can come together and ensure that their waste is properly managed with the leadership of their community head, we are going to achieve more than even intervening separately.
“The intervention is collaborating with the community in terms of the children, leaders and the people in the community to mitigate this waste situation”
On her part, Co-founder of the foundation, Merit Olumba in her address said the purpose of today’s program is to educate the Zuba community about climate change and promote actions to mitigate flooding and environmental degradation. We want to mobilize community leaders and local vigilantes to support this movement for a more sustainable society.
Husseini Salihu Umar, the district head of Ikwa community in Zuba, welcomed the program, stating, “this initiative is vital for keeping our community clean. Our streets are often dirty, and we suffer from inadequate road access and clean potable water. We rely on boreholes, but issues like leaking septic tanks raise our concerns about cholera. We need government intervention to prevent outbreaks of communicable diseases.”
The Teens Connect Africa initiative aims to foster a cleaner, healthier environment in Zuba and encourage community engagement in tree planting and environmental stewardship.
