On 5th June AWARE Thar Team Celebrated The World Environment Day. The Year 2021 Marked The Day With The Theme Of “Ecosystem Restoration”.
Climate change, deforestation, soil erosion, un-planned industrialization, ir-responsible behavior of the population is leading to eco-system degradation. Our natural habitat is generating threat to our healthy existence. Extinction of some animal and plant species is indeed an alarming situation. Our environment is definitely under a great threat!
On 5th June AWARE Thar Team Celebrated The World Environment Day. The Year 2021 Marked The Day With The Theme Of “Ecosystem Restoration”. AWARE following its commitment to the global SDGs organized the day with the slogan: “Let’s join hands to save our environment” for better Thar. The Environment Day awareness raising celebration took place by organizing an event by AWARE in partnership with Terre des hommes. The event was held at drought affected village Satla of Tharparkar .
AWARE representatives, children from the community schools, local social activists and the community members took active part in it. The event aimed at promoting the message of saving environment, following environment friendly practices. The AWARE Team Representative Ms. Kiran Hayat said; “Earth is our home where we all live. We must act responsibly to save our home environment. It is a do or die situation for us!
Mr. Mukesh Rathi shared that; The natural environment is our shelter that gives us food, water and oxygen. It is imperative to keep our environment clean and healthy if we want to save our future. Rajab Samejo said on the occasion that; AWARE while engaging the communities have planted trees, together we have resolved the issues of garbage disposal and together we are making efforts in saving water and recycling/reusing waste water. We are using and promoting renewable alternative energy. All these activities are aimed to save or environment. We must continue this practice and save resources from depletion.”
A local community activist Mr. Bilal Bheel, lauded the efforts made by AWARE. He said: “This is indeed a heartwarming that with the kind support of AWARE, we are engaged in environment friendly activities. AWARE helped us replacing our old myths and taboos. We planted trees, developed kitchen gardens and we now know so many ways to store and use water efficiently. We are better equipped than ever. We are trying our bit in improving our environment. The credit for this goes to AWARE for making us realise the importance of saving our shelter – our enviornment!”
The event also highlighted the negative impact of fire incidents and drought situation on women as the in-equalities they suffer due to such disasters. Natural disasters put a tremendous pressure on the family incomes, making it very difficult for women to manage family resources. This increases the incidents of domestic violence, mental illness and even suicides.
Ms. Kareema President Health Club from the community addressed the issue of natural disasters and the plight of women. She said: “Women face huge challenges. When natural disasters strike us, women are the worst hit. Women work inside their homes and outside too, to contribute to the family income. Yet, we face food insecurity, domestic violence and in-human treatment. AWARE’s strategy helps us all in coping with food in-security and securing women’s true potential. In order to cope with natural disasters, AWARE community mobilization team taught us; women must take part in pickle making, making small savings at home and develop kitchen gardens that may supplement our families when we face natural disasters. AWARE helped us realizing this dream!”.
The event included a display of environment friendly items by the school children. Items such as Sindhi pottery, clay made bird feeders and re-usable things of cloth were displayed. The message was also put forward by drawings and paintings made by the school children. Songs and rendering narrations of famous poets by community members and local social activists was also a part of the event.
The community and the local social activists appreciated the efforts of AWARE and its volunteers. The community has shown enthusiasm in carrying across the message. The event ended at a positive note. The AWARE representative Ms. Nusrat Liaquat in her concluding remarks said: “We have made tremendous efforts in making our environment healthy. Now we will move ahead to make smart choices in our everyday life to make our environment clean and green. Let us all resolve to keep on brining small changes starting from our own self.”
The organizers i.e. the AWARE team, the volunteers and the community members feel that their efforts will be futile, if there is no follow up to this initiative. In order to continue with their efforts the organizers are planning to volunteer tree plantation drives, social mobilization and awareness raising campaigns. The event ended with all the participants, holding play cards made a rally that took a round of the village to forward this message to the entire community, The committee also drafted an action plan so that it could contribute to a better environment of their village and other parts of Tharparkar by next year.