Category: Green Education for the Youth – GEFTY

1st National Green Essay Competition, an ongoing programme organized by UPLIFT Development Foundation in association with Channels Television based on Mrs. Olufunso Amosun’s book titled: Green Education for the Youths. UPLIFTing the Environment, where the youths from across the country were invited to write an essay on environment sustainability. The competition is designed to inculcate the green culture in the youths, and winners are now green ambassadors in their various states. In October 2015, Mrs.Amosun through her foundation sponsored the 12 finalists that emerged as winners from our six geo-political zones in Nigeria to the United Kingdom for a leadership and environmental workshop programme. All this she did, in a bid to get our future generation actively and voluntarily involved in the mission to save the environment that we live in, from further degradation.

As part of activities marking the 2013 Children’s Day celebration, Mrs.Amosun launched Green Education for the Youth (GEFTY) initiative on the 27th of May, 2013 with the aim of equipping them with the tools of green education to enable them nurture the environment for their future benefits. She advised children and youths in the state to support and promote her campaign for the going green initiative through tree planting to ensure a sustainable and healthy environment. Speaking during the 2013 Children’s Day celebration and launching of the GEFTY initiative at the MKO Abiola International Stadium, Kuto, Abeokuta, Mrs. Amosun put all the children and youths in stadium to the task of flagging off the Ogun State Youth 10,000 Tree Planting exercise which was accomplished through the 7,000 children present at the ceremony in the stadium and the rest were given to the guardians, parents and well-wishers also in attendance? At the launch of the GEFTY initiative Mrs. Amosun in her speech expressed what motivated her to embark on this initiative and her vision for it. “As the wife of the governor, with it not being my place to meddle in matters concerning laws or policies, I am launching a 2 level initiative called GEFTY. Level 1 is Green Education For The Youth, whilst Level 2 is Green Empowerment For The Youth. We are all aware that our youths are vibrant, adaptable, mobile and upward looking; they are the destined leaders of tomorrow and a fundamental force to tap into. That is why carrying them along and taking them on-board of the going green campaign from the onset in any nation, is of paramount importance, the way forward and the wise thing to do. However, to my uttermost dismay, I found during various discussions with our youth and surprisingly lots adults too, that quite a lot of people think of landscaping when you mention going green, some think they are actually synonymous! This prompted me to personally sit down and write a basic picture illustrated handbook called GEFTY, to assist, enlighten and arm our youth, who are the future leaders with basic knowledge of environmental sustainability through this handbook. The Level 1 GEFTY initiative is being launched today being children’s day, by giving 5000 children my self-written GEFTY handbook to educate you on the basics of going green. There are over 7000 students from across the state in this stadium and several adults, youths and female associations are also here to share the joy of children’s day with their wards. Each child will be given a tree seedling to take back to their various schools to be planted under the supervision of their agricultural teacher, this is being stressed as we do not want chaotic planting over the state. The adults here present will be given the rest of the seedlings to take home to children of neighbors to take to their schools and as such, here and now, 10,000 seedlings will be sent on their way for planting, while the agric teachers are charged with the responsibility of feeding us back through the ministry of education,if no seedlings turn up in your school for planting so that we can send some to you. One important deterring factor that I have observed, is the lack of connect. We talk a lot about tree planting when talking about environmental sustainability, but people don’t seem to grasp the relevance of actually working towards sustaining the environment, Level 2 of the GEFTY initiative explains to the youth that apart from sustaining the environment to save their own world when we are gone, going green is an empowerment tool, one that is useful in earning a living. Green Empowerment For The Youth (GEFTY) is dynamic, once you have the technical know how of going green, the sky is the limit to your earning opportunities. Let me give an analogy of how GEFTY Level 2 will put food on the table, cloths on our back and also get the rent and school fees paid whilst still work towards sustaining our environment. Let’s educate them on agricultural cash crop tree planting and get our unemployed youths off the street into farmland orchards: they plant fruit trees in tons on acres of land, and in so doing they sustain the environment and the forest inhabitants whilst earning a living: are you with me?For better clarity, Imagine if the 10,000 seedlings I gave out on children’s day were orange tree seedlings, Think of selling orchard fruits like apples, grapefruits or oranges to fruit juice companies to process into packed juice for sale. Just imagine the of the number of jobs in that production line………from harvesting at the orchard to delivering to factories (delivery jobs), from delivery to sorting, from sorting to processing, from processing to packing, from packing to delivering, delivering to marketing, marketing to wholesalers, then to retailers then to consumers, whao!! Just from planting some fruit seedlings trees? There is an endless list of white collar jobs in the area of environmental sustainability such as engineering, science and technology, power efficiency, legal jobs, marketing jobs administrative jobs and a host of others. Part of the objectives of the GEFTY Level 2 initiative is to educate our youth on recycling technics and get our unemployed youths off the street by empowering them to get into recycling business of turning our waste to wealth.”She explained that the initiative was geared towards promoting a clean and healthy environment that was void of environmental pollution as well as teaching them to protect their future to be able to contribute to the progress of the state and Nigeria by extension. According to her, “The world is going green and job creation is going green and we do not want our children to be left out in the sensitization of the green initiative. Today, we shall be flagging–off 10,000 tree seedlings to be distributed to our children for planting in their homes and environment to ensure greener and better condition of the

On the 23rd and 24thof April, 2013, Mrs. Amosun held a massive International Going Green Conference and Workshop which took place at the June 12 Cultural Centre, Kuto, Abeokuta. In attendance were members of the European Parliament, members from West African countries, executive Governors of Nigeria, Distinguished Senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Members of the Federal House of Representatives in Nigeria, several First Ladies of states in Nigeria, the Consular General to the French Embassy in Nigeria, and a magnitude of professionals and Environmentalists from Europe, West Africa and Nigeria. The International Conference and workshop that was organized by the UPLIFT Development Foundation in partnership with The International Centre for Promotion of Enterprises (ICPE) and Knowledge Economy Network (KEN) had various international and local agencies and NGO’s in attendance.Speaking at the conference, the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) expressed its readiness to partner with UPLIFT and Ogun State in general in its Going Green initiative. The House Committee Chairman on Environment, Hon. Uche Ekwunife noted that the concept of going green was to ensure the objective of improving the environment, maintaining that the issue of climate change has become a global challenge which governments at all levels and stakeholders must work together to address. “We must create green environment, access to clean energy and water, pollution-free environment, reduction in waste and immensely improve our ecosystem. This will make companies to pursue profits in more sustainable ways and ensure economic benefits for all,” she said. She noted that efforts to support conventional ways of granting access to energy and electricity must be geared towards generating energy from renewed and alternative sources which would preserve the environment, urging other legislators to update the policies in all spheres of life to reflect environmental improvement and initiate bills that are people and environmental friendly. His Excellency Senator Ibikunle Amosun the chief host of the event, urged the citizens of Ogun State to cultivate the habit of protecting the environment whilst carrying out their day-to-day activities, he canvassed for a synergy between private and public sectors to protect the environment. ”There is need for public private partnership in promoting important policies and instruments for environmental protection”. Mrs. Amosun, the convener of the conference, stated that her main objective is to work with the youth to accomplish here fete of Ogun State and Nigeria as a whole going green. She expressed how dynamic, energetic and motivated our youth, the future leaders of tomorrow are, and explained how she wished to educate the youth on the basics and necessity of going green and then empower them to earn a living whilst sustaining the environment. This she said would be flagged off under her GEFTY (Green Education For The Youth) Initiative.She expressed that the aims and objectives of the conference were to get international bodies and Government officials present at the conference to create an enabling environment for her GEFTY initiative to flourish, by putting laws in place that would encourage ‘green’ behavior by industries, organizations and government agencies. i.e. laws that would mandate industries to dispose off waste properly, laws that encourage industries to recycle their waste especially by buying back used containers of their products, laws that compel industries to use energy efficient machinery and create less pollution to the environment like solar powered machines instead of generator powered machinery. She said once laws and the enforcement of the laws were in place, it would help towards the progress and success of any going green initiative in Nigeria. According to her, “Going Green means adopting basic principles like reducing pollution, converse resources, reduce waste energy, protect the earth’s ecological balance and recycling products to protect the environment from harm, as well as ensuring living on earth is sustainable for human and other creatures.” adding that she hoped that one of the outcomes of the conference would be to find solutions and ways of reducing adverse environmental impacts, conserve energy and resources get us all to live a healthier lives.

Mrs. Amosun recently embarked on Going Green initiative, workingtoward a sustainable environment focusing mainly on getting our youth on board, to ensure that the next generation is environmentally friendly and compliant. The initiative started with a Tree Planting exercise that saw all the Ogun State EXCO members under the Senator Ibikunle Amosun FCA led administration as well as civil servants led by the Head of Service Mrs. Adekunle each planting a tree in their name. Dr. Newton Jibunoh of (FADE) and the committee chairman house of representative on environment Mrs. Uche Ekwunife and a host of other dignitaries took part in this tree planting exercise.The tree planting exercise was followed immediately by a 5km Green Awareness Walk by the Ogun State government on the19th of April, 2013 to sensitize citizens of the state on the basics of going green and the necessity for everyone to make little changes in their day to day activities that would help in working towards a sustainable environment.