Rosary High Secondary School Agwu Old Girls is heading up an environmental education project in the Amechi community in Nigeria. Including promoting conservation agriculture and the planting of trees, this activity empowers women and girls while addressing climate change.
Fast facts:
The problem
Deforestation depletes natural resources and leads to soil erosion. This, in turn, causes crop loss, which is devastating for the local population. Women and girls tend to have less access to education and are thus marginalized, preventing their participation in solutions that could improve the state of their communities.
The solution
Rosary High Secondary School Agwu Old Girls is an alumni association that supports the wellbeing of women and youths in the Amechi community in Enugu, Nigeria. A large part of the program involves teaching youth about climate change and climate change mitigation, along with sustainability. The “catch them young” program sends youth from various schools to the school for one week; in this time, they are integrated into conservation farmer households. The farmers teach them about good agricultural practices and sustainability. Working on the farms, youth are taught about tilling, crop rotation, herbicide-free weed removal, seedling planting, and various other activities. Seedlings that are planted on fertilized fallow land are later transferred to the nursery, where they are nurtured. From there, they are transplanted to strategic locations to prevent the threat of erosion.
Helping the planet
Improved agricultural practices contribute to sustainably managing natural resources such as soils and water. Planting trees addresses erosion by stabilizing the land and helping it absorb water.
Helping people
The tree-planting provides alternative sources of income, as well as promoting partnership among the villagers and a strong sense of community. Reducing erosion improves food security. Educational components of the program help not only with short-term solutions to food, income, and land use; the information will transcend generations and borders, contributing to the long-term sustainability of communities.
Spillover effect
The sustainable project enjoys broad acceptance by local people. This makes it easy to be scaled and replicated in other communities in Nigeria and beyond, to support youth empowerment and mitigate climate change. Positive practices in the Amechi community can spread to all communities in Nigeria.
Images owned by the activity partners, all rights reserved.
