PHOTO: Students from various schools were part of the Earth Day celebrations
Monrovia–The Center for Media Studies and Peacebuilding (CEMESP), in partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Monrovia City Corporation (MCC), and Paynesville City Corporation (PCC), has held the first ever World Earth Day celebration in Liberia.
The program was held on Thursday at the Paynesville City Hall with call for the preservation of nature. The event was supported by Cities Alliance Liberia Country Program Office with funding from the European Union.
The program was a historic occasion because this was the first time for Liberia to join other countries of the world to celebrate the global event since it was launched in 1970 in the USA. In his welcome remarks the Executive Director of CEMESP, Malcolm Joseph, lauded Cities Alliance and the other partners for making it possible for Liberia to make history by commemorating the 51st anniversary of World Earth Day, Mr. Joseph extended gratitude to the European Union for the financial support which made the celebration possible, said a CEMESP press release.
Malcolm Joseph, CEMESP Executive Director
“Today we are proud to join with our partners, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Paynesville City Corporation (PCC), and Monrovia City Corporation (MCC), and with support from Cities Alliance Liberia Country Program Office to commemorate this all important day”, Joseph said, while reaffirming his organization’s commitment to the global cause to save our earth by promoting a clean and green environment.
World Earth Day 2021 was celebrated under the global theme, “Restore Our Earth”, with Liberia adopting a sub-theme “Promoting a Safe Environment in Oder to Restore Our Earth.” Serving as keynote speaker, Madam Frances Seydou, Director of the Inter-sectorial Division at the EPA, admonished the audience, who were predominantly high school students, to champion the cause of promoting a clean and healthy environment.
Madam Seydou challenged participants to take the lead in the process of proper solid waste management practices whether at school, home or at work. “If our earth must be restored, it has to start with each one of us becoming a part of the process,” the EPA Inter-sectorial Director admonished.
Also speaking on behalf of Cities Alliance’s Country Director, Mr. Garmoyou Zoegar, Technical Solid Waste Management Specialist, said “the fact that we must restore indicate that we have lost something that we had before”. He said, the call to restore is based on the fact that our activities as people have caused a lot of harm to our earth. According to Zoegar, the process of restoring the earth is the responsibility of everyone, but most especially the students since they will have to inherit the future. He encouraged the students in the hall to take keen interest in proper disposal of garbage, and adopt proper waste management practices at all times.
Organizing the World Earth Day event is part of CEMESP’s six-month consultancy grant program under the Cities Alliance program titled, “Delivering Climate Resilient Solid Waste Management Services in Greater Monrovia, through Community Based Enterprises.” Under the grant agreement, CEMESP is supposed to implement six key activities. Already, CEMESP has held trainings for twenty local journalists and twenty supervisors of high school environmental clubs. The high schools are located within the greater Monrovia area.
In addition to the celebration of Earth Day, CEMESP with funding from the European Union through Cities Alliance is expected to implement additional activities under her six-months consultancy including: Organizing clean-up campaign in Granter Monrovia, Nine Community Forums, Peer-to-Peer Sensitization Campaign and Design and Lunch of a Competition Targeting Schools and Youths in Greater Monrovia.
Every year, 22 April is observed as Earth Day across the globe where stakeholders take part in civic activities and work towards raising awareness about critical issues that the Earth is facing.
Global warming, pollution and deforestation are some of the problems routinely discussed since they pose a major threat to nature.
According to the UN, over 1 billion people spread across 192 countries participate in Earth Day activities each year, making the day as the largest civic observance in the world.
The program was attended by ten representatives each from ten high schools within the Greater Monrovia area. Also in attendance were representatives from the EPA, PCC, MCC, Cities Alliance and CEMESP.