A seven-year-old pupil of the Sir Martin’s Memorial School in Damongo in the Savannah region of Ghana, Kaliya Jasmine Bahia has emerged winner of this year's world Environment Day ( WED ) eassy competition organized by A Rocha Ghana in partnership with Open Foundation West Africa and GH Environment for children between 6-9years (category one).
She came first out of a targeted category of children within the ages of six and nine with over 80 entries from all three categories in which she made an inspiring presentation of her eassy.
The contest was launched with the theme; Only one Earth, how will you protect it? on the June 5, 2022, as part of the World Environment Day celebration.
Kaliya Jasmine expressed gratitude to the organizers of the program and pledged to deliver to the best of her ability to advocate for the protection of the environment and the earth as a whole and encouraged her colleagues at her level to believe in themselves and not to limit themselves to their comfort zones.
As part of the award, Kaliya took away a Certificate and Wikimedia souvenirs from Open Foundation West Africa and would partake in a training session with Wikipedia as well as have her essay published on some media platforms.
Mr. Isaac Kofi Ntori, the A Rocha Ghana Northern Sector Project officer in a presentation said, A Rocha Ghana believes that children possess innate attitudes of love and care for God’s creation but the quality of this needs to be supported, guided and encouraged.
He explained that, A Rocha Ghana as part of its work engages students at all levels in environmental conservation education to instill in them the culture of environmental stewardship adding that, the students participate in a wide-ranging of activities with the aim of promoting quality education and learning, whiles caring for the environment.
Mr. Ntori congratulated Kaliya on winning the ultimate price and also appealed to students to emulate her and participate fully in competitions such as the WED Essay contest while calling on teachers, heads of schools and the Ghana Education Service as a whole, to motivate and guide students to actively participate in any competition that seeks to build up on the skills and intellect of students.
Miss. Joana Ewuntomah, the Proprietress of the Sir Martin’s Memorial School on her part, expressed her happiness for young Kaliya for winning such a contest and said, it's her hope that the award will have a great impact in the life of Kaliya and the entire Sir. Martin's school at large.
She thanked A Rocha Ghana and the Partners for putting up such a competition and for helping to bring the name of her School to the limelight and promised that the school will retain the award and also win more of the categories next year.
The contest was to encourage young people to use their literacy skills to raise awareness on the need to protect the earth as well as contributing to the emerging issues such as climate change, food and water security, sustainable livelihoods, biodiversity loss and the likes.
PAD FM, EDWIN/+233555588660