🌍 Celebrating International Environmental Education Day: Hands-On Urban Gardening & Upcycling with Students in Bamenda 🌱
On January 24th, 2025, the International Student Environmental Coalition (ISEC) Cameroon carried out a practical hands-on activity on urban gardening and waste upcycling with students at Faith Alliance Nursery and Primary School, Mile Five Nkwen – Bamenda. This activity was part of our commitment to celebrating International Environmental Education Day, a day dedicated to promoting environmental awareness, sustainability, and action across communities worldwide.
Despite the security challenges in Bamenda, our dedicated team members – Sharon, Felix, Silas, and Courage – successfully engaged students and teachers in an interactive and practical session on gardening, upcycling, and organic farming. The activity aimed to provide students with the skills, tools, and knowledge needed to address pressing environmental issues such as food security, waste management, and climate change.
Why Environmental Education Matters?
Environmental education is key to empowering young people to take action in their communities. It helps students understand how their actions impact the planet and equips them with practical solutions to combat environmental degradation, promote sustainability, and enhance resilience to climate change.
Through this initiative, we aimed to:
✅ Educate students to become environmental stewards
✅ Teach them about recycling and upcycling as sustainable waste management strategies
✅ Use gardening as a tool to fight climate change
✅ Highlight the importance of organic farming in ensuring food security and healthy diets
✅ Demonstrate the environmental and health impacts of artificial fertilizers
✅ Foster a culture of environmental responsibility from a young age
Hands-On Learning: Gardening and Upcycling in Action 🌱
The session was highly interactive and designed to ensure that students actively participated in the learning process. Our team members engaged the pupils in a series of practical lessons and demonstrations to make environmental education both fun and impactful.
Introduction to ISEC and Gardening
The session began with Felix, who introduced ISEC Cameroon to the students, explaining our mission of empowering young people to take climate action and promote environmental sustainability. He then introduced the topic of gardening, explaining why gardens are essential for communities and the environment. He also demonstrated how we can reuse everyday materials such as plastic bottles and old containers to create small home gardens, turning waste into valuable resources.
Types of Gardening and How to Maintain a Healthy Garden
Next, Silas spoke about the different types of gardens, such as container gardening, raised-bed gardening, and vertical gardening—techniques that are particularly useful in urban areas where space is limited. He also discussed:
🌿 The best ways to maintain a garden
💧 The importance of water for crops and the best times to water plants
🌱 How to ensure plants receive enough sunlight and nutrients for healthy growth
Understanding Soil and Its Role in Gardening
Courage took the students through a lesson on soil science, explaining the various types of soils and how each type affects plant growth. She emphasized the best soil for gardening and how to improve soil health through composting and organic practices. Students were particularly fascinated by how healthy soil contributes to better food production and environmental sustainability.
The Importance of Organic Fertilizers and Sustainable Farming
Finally, Sharon educated the students on the use of manure and organic fertilizers as an alternative to artificial fertilizers. She highlighted:
🚫 The harmful effects of artificial fertilizers on human health and the environment
🌱 The advantages of using organic manure in farming
🌿 How composting and natural fertilizers improve soil health and reduce pollution
The Importance of Urban Gardening in Ensuring Food Security
In an era of rapid urbanization, urban gardening has become a crucial strategy for food security and sustainability. As cities grow, access to fresh, organic food becomes increasingly difficult, leading to health challenges and food shortages.
Urban gardening provides multiple benefits, including:
✅ Improved food security – Families can grow their own fresh vegetables and fruits, reducing dependency on expensive and processed foods.
✅ Healthy and organic food – Organic gardening ensures that people have access to nutritious, chemical-free produce.
✅ Reduced environmental impact – By repurposing waste materials and using organic farming techniques, urban gardening minimizes pollution and promotes sustainability.
✅ Climate change mitigation – Plants absorb carbon dioxide, helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and urban heat.
✅ Community resilience – Gardening encourages community engagement, fosters self-reliance, and enhances local food systems.
Through activities like these, ISEC Cameroon is equipping young people with the knowledge and skills to create their own sustainable food sources, reduce waste, and contribute to a greener and healthier future.
Reflections and Student Engagement
The students were eager to learn and highly interactive throughout the session. Many of them asked questions about how they could start their own gardens at home, what types of plants were best for their environment, and how they could further reduce waste through upcycling. The enthusiasm and curiosity demonstrated by the pupils were inspiring, reaffirming our belief that investing in youth environmental education is key to building a sustainable future.
We also received positive feedback from teachers, who expressed their appreciation for the initiative and its impact on the students. Many of them noted that practical environmental education is crucial in shaping young minds and instilling a sense of responsibility for the planet.
Our Commitment to Environmental Education
At ISEC Cameroon, we believe that education is one of the most powerful tools for driving environmental action. By incorporating hands-on, practical learning experiences, we are ensuring that students not only understand environmental issues but also have the skills to address them.
This initiative is just one of many as we continue to engage young people, empower schools, and promote sustainable practices across Cameroon. Through partnerships, community outreach, and continued education, we remain committed to building a generation of environmental stewards who will lead the fight against climate change and environmental degradation.
🌍 We are grateful to our team, the teachers, and the students at Faith Alliance Nursery and Primary School for making this event a success!
Stay tuned for more updates on our upcoming initiatives, and if you’d like to partner with us or support our work, feel free to reach out! (email : iseccameroon@gmail.com)
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