Over 115 children in Tanzania participated in a World Environment Day activity facilitated by AKU's Institute for Educational Development, East Africa. This was an initiative led by the Master of Education (MEd) students who established an AKU Environmental Club to raise awareness on environmental sustainability.
The activities were held in Muhimbili and Olympio primary schools in Upanga region, Tanzania. Teachers and learners together with AKU students and staff planted 40 trees and 20 flowers. The University also supplied the schools with dustbins to enable proper waste management.
Khadija Ismail Suleiman, an MEd student said environment and climate is a core strategic priority and crosscutting theme at the university.
“In accelerating AKU's value further, the university decided to mark the Environment Day by raising awareness on waste management, particularly plastics, among pupils who are key change agents to a culture of sustainability and innovation," said Khadija.
A teacher at Muhimbili Primary School, Aika Mgeni said, “As you can witness, our school environment is clean and decorated with trees and flowers. We thank AKU for supporting our endeavour." She also lauded the MEd students for introducing an environmental club within the school to help learners become ambassadors on environmental management practices.
Meanwhile, in the Aga Khan University Kenya campus, faculty, staff and students convened for a documentary screening of the film 'Plastics are Forever' which was produced by the Graduate School of Media and Communications. The film was part of the Giving Nature a Voice (GNV) environmental documentary series that ran for four seasons on one of Kenya's national television stations. GNV was a precursor to the series 'Voices from the Roof of the World'.
Engaging discussions followed the screening to understand how stakeholders can work together to ensure adherence to this year's theme #BeatPlasticPollution:
“The crises (triple planetary crises) that we face every day requires a whole of society approach to begin to repair our broken relationship with our planet. Faith, values, and principles must drive individual and community action for real, sustainable change, like we saw in this documentary. A reorientation of our behaviours and attitudes will follow. It is therefore commendable that the first core principle of the AKDN Environment and Climate Change Statement is responsible stewardship of the environment," said Azmaira Alibhai, faith and ecosystems coordinator, Faith for Earth at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Arnold Mwanzu, regional librarian at AKU said, “Some of the green practices that have now been adopted by many libraries include green library buildings, green corners, waste separation recycling and reusing, and most prominently, the 25 percent: 75 percent ratio of 'print' to 'electronic' book collections in libraries. Our main goal is to create awareness on what libraries can do to make a change."
Globally, AKU has made concerted efforts to phase-down single-use plastic water bottles. The University recognizes its impact on the environment and its responsibility and is taking steps across its campuses to address the pollution and climate crises. Its efforts are guided by the AKDN-wide Environment and Climate Commitment Statement which is based on four principles: responsible stewardship, improving quality of life for the most vulnerable, socially responsible leadership, and leading by example through the net zero goal.
