Ministry of Education and Sports and Civil Society provide 20,000 trees for primary schools across Laos.
From June to August, the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) and Zero Waste Laos deployed an awareness-raising campaign in 11 provinces of Laos to sensitise children and youth on climate change issues and waste management and provide 20,000 trees to primary schools, with the support of the European Union, Norwegian People’s Aid and World Vision through the It Starts With Me campaign.
A few weeks after National Arbour Day and while Laos is experiencing severe natural disasters, the Ministry of Education and Sports is taking significant steps to combat climate change by partnering with the local organisation Zero Waste Laos and encouraging environmental protection and preservation by providing 20,000 trees to 550 primary and secondary schools in Luang Prabang, Xiengkhouang, Xayaboury, Vientiane, Vientiane Capital, Khammouane, Savannakhet, Saravane, Sekong, Champasack and Attapeu provinces.
Started in early July, the activities conducted jointly by the Provincial representatives of the MoES and Zero Waste Laos young volunteers aim at raising awareness of Lao children and young people on the causes and consequences of climate change, and sharing alternatives to reduce our carbon footprint, especially through improved waste management practices. A total of 1,400 individuals, including 750 children and youth, participated in the events organised by Zero Waste Laos in the provinces and gained new knowledge, encouraging them to take action and apply small behaviour changes that can have a big positive impact on their future:
“I am very happy to join this event and gained a lot of knowledge about the environment,” says Mr. Theva, 16 years old from Saravane province, to continue “I learned about different environmental issues, particularly waste segregation and composting. We received fruit trees to plant in our schools. I met many students from other schools and shared our thoughts on how can we protect our environment.”
Zero Waste Laos, a local youth-led environmental NGO/ CSO established in 2019, is scaling up its efforts to sensitise young Lao people to climate change issues after three years of campaigning around the country. Souksaveuy Keothiamchanh, Founder of Zero Waste Laos, says:
“We all want to provide a beautiful environment to the next generation, we cannot just leave only pollution, disaster and degradation of natural resources to them. This is unfair. Therefore, let’s take action together. Small individual action can lead to big changes.”
“We’ve been following these initiatives and seen Zero Waste Laos implement activities in many provinces. Finally, Savannakhet is one of the provinces hosting the event this year, and this is our first time to engage with Youth Climate Action” says Mr. Phimmasone Volaryoud, Deputy General Director of the Department of Education and Sports of Savannakhet province. “We are glad to have this project. We will look to make sure that the tree will grow nicely and hope we can work together with many more schools in Savannakhet, we really want to increase awareness of students and teachers to protect the environment and initiate green schools”.
After hosting an event in late June to share the concerns of Lao children and youth on climate change, World Vision commits to support the Government of Lao PDR and Lao civil society to build a more sustainable future for children:
“World Vision sees climate change as a justice issue for children, who will be the most impacted, today and in the future. We fully support the work engaged with Zero Waste to empower them as agents of change in the fight against global warming and climate change, and we owe them to take immediate action to reduce our carbon footprint” says Ms. Edelweiss Silan, National Director for World Vision. The initiative led by the MoES and Zero Waste will end on the 22nd of September with the Youth Climate Action conference, where stakeholders will share the results and lessons learnt and host youth-friendly activities and contests to catch public interest and attention to climate issues and trigger urgent actions to protect Lao children’s future.