Kehinde Akinsola, the curator, Global Shapers Community in Ilorin, Kwara State, has said that issues of climate change requires collective measures, adding that everyone has a role to play in order to tackle it in their respective domains.
Akinsola, who stated this while speaking with journalists at the awards ceremony where a total sum of N300,000 was given to two winners of the First Climate Action Challenge, explained that the project was aimed at bringing key stakeholders to collaborate on climate adaptation and resilience building in Ilorin community.
“Today, we held the Ilorin Climate Action Challenge 1.0, where we had two winners; Abraham Akintola from Ilorin East local Government Area and Ibrahim Oba from Ilorin West local government area of the state.
“We had seven participants from the two local government areas who had wonderful ideas for climate actions in their communities, we believe in giving the young people and people living in the community the opportunity to proffer solutions to climate issues.
“The winners were given a sum of $300 each when converted to naira N150,000 making a total grant sum of N300,000 to help them in their climate change intervention.
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“All the seven participants were given certificate of participation and the winners were awarded their grant.
“We will be going to those communities with them, we will work with them and support them to ensure we impact the change we can in these communities.
“By September and October we will be going to some other communities because this is a continuous project which is expected to run for six months,” he said.
Abraham Akintola, one of the winners said he was working on Community Inclusion on Plastic Pollution, which will be implemented at Sabo-Oke community in Ilorin.
He says: “We are very excited at winning this grant because it is the first for our organisation towards funding a project and we appreciate the Ilorin Global Shapers Community for the privilege given us to pitch our idea.
“Plastics cannot be absolutely eradicated, so we must ensure that people learn to live with it by way of recycling.
“We have come up with how to take plastics of the environment by making interlock stones using plastics as binder instead of cement.
“This project, I hope will engage, enlighten and empower people on the need to develop a responsible attitude toward climate change and environmental protection.”
In his submission, Ibrahim Oba noted that, “I feel happy that my hard work has paid off, it is not about the money, but that I am able to make a change in my community.
“I will be taking and implementing the Climate Smart Agricultural Practices to Alanamu community.
“I have observed that people do not understand what these practices are, so I will be training and working with the youths of the community to effect this change.”
