YEN Zambia

Youth Environment Network - Zambia

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

International Youth Environment Camp Zambia (IYECZ) – Dec, 2009

With sufficient capacity building, the youth become ambassadors and leaders for environmental policies by among others; developing skills, networking and facilitating their active participation in effective decision making. It is in light of this that the International Youth Environment Camp Zambia (IYECZ) was initiated. The IYECZ is being organized by Youth Environment Network (YEN-Zambia) and Green Warriors Movement (GWM-Kenya) for the young people all over the world, and local communities as a non-profit making venture. YEN-Zambia is a non-profit; youth based organization which was formed on 23rd September 2007 with the purpose of educating, engaging and empowering youths, women and children in activities that will improve their living standards and the natural environment as a whole. The IYECZ is open to all those who are serious about making a positive contribution towards environmental problems and coming up with sound solutions based on long term objectives. The Programme aspires to provide participants with the opportunity to gain skills, knowledge, have interactive learning sessions and discuss on the best strategies in conserving our environment.

The International Youth Environment Camp Zambia is designed with the purpose of exposing and equipping young people to voluntary and development work. They also learn skills on leadership, decision making and effective advocacy to global contemporary issues. What makes IYECZ unique and relevant is the skillful facilitation and personal interaction between the youth, with resource persons and local communities. The facilitators are not only experts in the environmental fields, but are also equipped with skills to deal with the young people. The camp will focus on various social, economic, cultural, and environmental and development issues such as health and HIV/AIDS, sustainable development, natural resource management, governance and democracy, peace and war, alcohol and drug abuse and environmental education. The camp will employ various techniques such as talks and presentations, team building and group dynamic tasks/sports, game drives and community outreach among others.

The environmental camp set to take place on Dec 2009, will enable the youth to acquire vital knowledge on current social, environmental and culture issues; empower the youth to be ambassadors in the conservation area, create a forum for exchange of ideas and experience and trap the energies, skills and knowledge of the youth to be used not only in conservation and protection of the environment but also on other development areas. Besides this; the camp purposes to engage the youth and community members in planting 5,000 trees. This is geared to assist in Carbon Sequestration thus increase the Forest cover as in line with goal number 7 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) and the Billion Tree Campaign ; Plant for the Planet .

Participation

The International Youth Environment Camp Zambia (IYECZ) is a YEN-Zambia initiative designed to bring together young people from different parts of the world, local communities and environmental based organizations to share ideas, acquire knowledge, learn knew skills, gain confidence and ultimately have an active participation in issues that pertain to the Conservation and management of our Bio-Diversity. The IYECZ will bring together over 80 people from different parts of the World, Local Communities, and organizations committed in taking good care of our precious Flora and Fauna. The International Environment Camp will be held during the second week of December; 14th Dec to 20th Dec, 2009. The Environment Camp is targeting youth and community members from all parts of the World of Ages between 18 and 35 Years.

Participants will gain vital knowledge in contemporary issues, specifically efficient Conservation and Management Techniques. The participants will be empowered to be Campaigners and Ambassadors in the Conservation of our precious Flora and Fauna. Ultimately, the youth will be able to influence decision making positively in all issues.

With the youth from all over the World coming together, a Network will be forged that will enable handling of cross cutting environmental and developmental issues. The youth will benefit from the “hands on experience” through working with the local communities. The youth will be instilled with a sense of ownership on environmental matters and develop utmost never ending conservation synergies amongst them. In addition to this; the participants will visit the World Renowned Victoria falls. The Scenic Falls are 1.7KM wide with a volume of 90 Million Litres per second tearing down at a vertical drop. It is commonly referred as “The Smoke that Thunders”. Dr. Livingstone on his first visit wrote: “Scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by Angels in their flight”. We will also visit the Maramba Cultural Village and Kafue National Park.

For more information or registration, please contact:

intcampzed@yahoo.com

intcampzed@gmail.com

+260 977 607960

+254 721 955202

We duly welcome you to Zambia the “Real Africa”.


Yours sincerely,


Cyrus Gachangja
Programmes Coordinator
GWM - Kenya
Billy M. Lombe
Founder and Executive Director
YEN - Zambia

Green Warriors Movement (Kenya) and Youth Environment Network (Zambia) plant trees in Nairobi’s Karura forest to mark Earth Day

Passion for the environment and compassion for people are the forces driving community based organizations such as Green Warriors Movement and Non-Governmental Organizations such as the Youth Environment Network to their invaluable contribution towards the conservation of our precious biodiversity.

On Earth Day, heavy downpour made it was almost impossible to reach the designated tree planting site. However, this did not stop the spirits of participants from the Green Warriors Movement and of the Youth Environment Network who were determined to achieve their objective of planting 1,000 trees and consequently contribute positively to environmental conservation which is in line with Millennium Development Goal (MDG) number 7. Community members from the neighbouring Huruma community prepared the grounds for tree planting and also participated actively during the tree planting exercise. They turned up in good numbers; women, men and children as young as seven (7) years, were all dedicated to achieve the objective of the day – to plant trees.

To start off the event, the forest officer, Mr. Lewis demonstrated to the youth and to the community members how to plant trees and the best way to remove the seedlings from the plastic bags.

The trees were planted with high spirits and enthusiasm. The tree planting speed was also remarkable as all knew that the rains would fall any time. During the tree planting exercise, children were very useful; they brought the seedlings to the holes dug by the forest officers the day before. In addition to this some children were strong enough to plant ten trees each.

The participation of young children at this event was important as it instilled a sense of environmental conservation amongst them. The tree planting team managed to plant 800 out of the 1000 trees they had targeted to plant. The trees planted included; Croton megalocarpus, Podo, Nandi flame and other indigenous trees.

Tree planting with communities, if well implemented rationally spearheads a process of wealth creation, job creation and improved conservation, all specifically in the rural areas where poverty abounds and peoples needs are so great.

Contact persons

Cyrus Gachanja
Green Warriors Movement
P.O. Box 28951-00200
Nairobi, Kenya Tel: +254721955202
Email: egreenwarrior@yahoo.co.uk

Billy Mwansa Lombe
Youth Environment Network –Zambia
P.O. Box 30865
Lusaka, Zambia Tel: +260-977-607-960
Email: yenzambia@yahoo.com