SOJO: This NGO's Initiatives Creates Awareness on Unhealthy Environment
Ghazali Ibrahim,
Adewale Sefiu, 25, a student of Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto, has always wondered on the state of unhealthy environment in the university community. This he had observed right from when he gained admission into the university.
But everything remain the same with the unchallant attitude of the university cleaners who does the work at their own wish cleaning some places and leaving some places unattended to. Though he hoped a day will come when all this nightmare of unhealthy environment will pass.
He did all he could in sensitizing people around him on the need for a healthy environment as this is the way to stay hygienically clean.
A global problem
Like Ibrahim, other students who also noticed the state of university environment complained bitterly of this pandemic.
Statistics shows that more than 12 million people around the world die every year because they live or work in unhealthy environments.Healthy People 2030 focuses on reducing people’s exposure to harmful pollutants in air, water, soil, food, and materials in homes and workplaces.
Environmental pollutants can cause health problems like respiratory diseases, heart disease, and some types of cancer.People with low incomes are more likely to live in polluted areas and have unsafe drinking water. And children and pregnant women are at higher risk of health.
The World health report indicated that globally, 23 percent of death occurrences and 26 percent of children deaths ranging up to 4 million children under five every year are due to environmental factors. Also, Usmanu Danfodiyo University environment contributes among 85 out of 102 categories of diseases and injuries are influenced by environmental factors. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the interactions between humans and the environment affect the quality of life, health disparities, and a healthy life span. Making the environment healthier can prevent about 13 million death yearly and avoid 13%–37% of the world's disease burden, such as 40% of deaths from malaria, 41% of deaths from lower respiratory infections, and 94% of deaths from diarrheal disease.
In 2021,a humanitarian based organization, Junior Chamber International, JCI situated in the school took the bold step of sanitizing the university environment by picking up all the waste disposal due to indiscriminate littering. But this initiatives fall due to financial crisis and some other undisclosed reasons.
Coming to Rescue
On June 4,2023 a team from a non governmental organization (NGO) called Awareness 360 came to rescue the university environment on the unhealthy status plaguing the community. This team of like-minded people was headed by Hamza Halima,a 400 student of Biochemistry and Molecular biology in the University.
Awareness 360 is an award-winning, global, youth-led non-profit, registered and headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, that empowers young people in 40+ countries to do community service projects in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To this end, over 1.1 million people have been directly benefited through our projects.
Haleemah Hamzah, explained how she became a fellow and the need for her to contribute towards humanity by making sure that her environment is clean, hygienic and safe.
"I joined in January 2023 to become a fellow,so that I can provide solutions to the community's needs",she explained.
When speaking with Gamji press on the reason behind this initiatives,she reiterated that, "from the assessment conducted in February, I realized the immediate need for clean water and a tidy environment in Usmanu Danfodiyo University which is attributed to the cause of many diseases among the students like skin diseases, and typhoid among others".
"Clean water and sanitation are one of the SDGs to be achieved by 2030, but how do we achieve this aim in our community? So we need to bring this initiative to our university community in order to do this together for the sake of humanity".
Based on the assessment she carried out,it was observed that the same way the environment is unhealthy is also the same way the university is lacking clean and portable water. But as for the priority took in sanitizing the environment,she and her team embark on this social project in order to make impact on the environment by having the first project carried in common places in the school environment like walkways, the hostel minimart, the ICT center, and the Academic Mosque arena.
"This project is aimed at cleaning up the places in the school while promoting good hygiene on campus".
Challenges
While Haleemah continue making impacts on the lives of people in her environment through her project, financial crisis is hindering the hope of providing long lasting solution to the problem of unhealthy environment bedeviling her university community.
In her words,"This project carried out by my team is a zero funded project in which every materials we used in the project is a result of contribution by team members. Without funds,the project might not be able to provide lasting solution to it. Therefore we urge like-minded people out there to support this initiative".
Comments
Post a Comment