While climate change is real with obvious impacts, the Lagos Lagoon Climate Response is further creating awareness of the reality across the state, especially in coastal areas.
In line with the above, the Lagos Lagoon Climate Response, which aims at supporting rural communities living along the Lagos Lagoon faced with the impact of climate change, launched in Epe, Lagos, where it held events in three different schools and towns between October 14 and 24, 2024.
With the project, over 800 students of primary and secondary schools in Saga, Ejirin and Oriba; three coastal communities on the Lagos Lagoon in Epe, received donations of textbooks and other educational supplies. Two of the three communities – Oriba and Saga are accessible only by boat.
The project is being delivered by Help Africa Initiatives (HAI), an NGO, in collaboration with partners, Eyes of a Lagos Boy, Healthinika, Mitimeth, Ecolearn.ng and Lagos State Waterways Authorities (LASWA) with the support of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In Saga and the surrounding villages, Ejirin and Oriba school children went home with books covering Basic Science, Mathematics, English, Agricultural Science, Civic Education, Biology, dictionaries including exercise books, with the objective to advance access to education. Oba Rafiu Ishola Balogun, the Elejirin of Ejirin, and traditional ruler, encouraged the pupils at Lofi Ogunmude Comprehensive College Ejirin to study the books and follow their teachers’ guidelines, while insisting that there are governors, ministers and presidents sitting among them.
In the same vein, a medical team led by Tuyi Mebawondu, conducted health checks and provision of medicines to the people checked, while informing pregnant women, young and old about the common diseases in the villages and how to prevent them. Over 1,000 people from the communities received health interventions and referrals to mitigate the lack of access to public health services. The organizers assured that the project would run till March 2025 and more targeted actions on the health front would be implemented.
With the anticipated end of the rainy season, many women in the communities are already drying water hyacinth to be braided into ready raw materials. With rapt attention, they followed instructions by Achenyo Idachaba Obaro of Mitimeth that has commenced training sessions that will run for the next three months on how to convert the stubborn sea weeds into valuable economic products.
“We have been working with the coastal communities of Epe since 2018 and today, we have a common front implementing this project as partners with the communities. We are tackling their issues of concern together,” Bolaji Alonge, project coordinator, said.
The SDG project also addresses climate change, while Ecolearn.ng discusses the topic at local level through assembly lectures on transforming waste to wealth, to promote better local practices in terms of water management and sanitation.
“Help Africa Initiatives implements a holistic approach to local sustainable development, to generate employment and to impact the lives of children attending public schools in these communities as well as supporting public health service provision. Do you know that Ayomide Bello, Nigeria’s first female Olympic flat-water canoeist and Tokyo 2020 participant, is from Saga village? This corner of Lagos brims with talent,” Alonge pointed out further.
In her opening remarks at the book donation, school assembly and heath checks in Ejirin on Wednesday 16 October 16, 2024, Sanne Chipeta, representative, Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, noted that the project that the embassy is currently funding is expected to provide improvements in four areas; better livelihoods through developing methods to utilise the water hyacinth for different purposes – to see if a troublemaker can become useful; health literacy on disease prevention; better education through increased access to teaching materials, including on the impact of climate change and lastly, continued documentation of the conditions in order to advocate for increased attention to the needs and requirements of the communities to develop adequate climate change resilience.
“I am particularly happy for the invitation to be here today to witness the launch of some of the activities. The support that we can provide here now is modest and we are fully aware that real long-lasting impact in terms of improving living conditions in these coastal communities will require much more than this project,” Sanne noted.
“I also want to extend my gratitude to other partners that are engaging in these efforts, we highly appreciate the joining of hands to start working towards the goal of improved living condition and resilience of the communities in this area and I will urge all parties, the community members in particular, to continue putting serious thinking and creativity into the development of innovative solutions towards the common goal now and in the future.”
Until the end of March 2025, monthly visits would be carried out by the team and partners to these communities. More school assemblies would be held to learn and brainstorm collectively on climate change, critical thinking and creative writing. An exhibition is being planned in April 2025 that will document the project and spotlight Epe and its coastal villages.
Help Africa Initiatives (HAI) was set up in 2012 with the aim to help humanity through health, education, sheltering, food provision, orphanage homes and other humanitarian services. HAI, including its partners, has solid local expertise within public health and experience in terms of campaigning for better livelihoods for the target community.
MitiMeth was established to address the negative environmental and social impacts resulting from waste by creating new sustainable materials derived from invasive aquatic weeds and agricultural residues.
HAI and its partners have for the last five years been engaged in advocating for improved services, and also in promoting livelihood activities related to the utilization of water hyacinth as well as public awareness. It has an extensive network of public and private stakeholders that are essential to the success of the project such as LASWA, local governments in Epe and rural communities, public health authorities and private partners.
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