The Ilorin Global Shapers Community on Saturday hosted the Ilorin Climate Action Challenge tagged “Empowering young people to create actionable solutions to local climate challenges in their communities for Sustainable Development.”
The event which was held at Noktel Hotel, GRA, Ilorin, has seven contestants drafted from two local government areas in Kwara state (Ilorin East and Ilorin West) and it was attended by experienced community development practitioners as judges.
Ilorin Hub Curator, Mr Kehinde Akinsola, said Ilorin Global Shapers Community is a network of young innovative people that comes together from diverse professional background driven to solve problems in their communities.
He, however, challenged the general public to take actions that are going to affect our environment positively, noting that Climate action is an inclusive steps that requires contributions from everybody.
“Currently, we are running a campaign called ‘Ilorin Climate Change Action (#IyipadaojuojoIlorin)’ where we solved climate related issues most especially flood related issues in Ilorin East and Ilorin West local government of Kwara state.”
“Ilorin Global Shapers Community started last year and we won our first grant of $12k early this year and the fund is to be used on climate action in order to have a better environment and today, Saturday, 6th August, 2022, we are having our first Ilorin Climate Action Challenge 1.0.”
One of the finalists, Babatunde Qodir from Ilorin East, while commending the community for this wonderful initiative calls for Climate Action education for people in the rural areas. He said, “It’s imperative to know that people in the rural communities contribute greatly to Climate Change as most of them are farmers with little knowledge on how to process their waste.”
The winner from Ilorin West, Oba AbdulKadir Ibrahim, developed a curriculum content on climate change and climate smart agricultural practices and it was published by a notable university in Indonesia. He noted that the curriculum will teach people in the rural communities what climate change is, the causes, effects and ways to ameliorate the effects of climate change using Climate Smart Agricultural practices.
“With this prize of $300 (One hundred and fifty thousand naira) my intention is to teach the people in the rural communities in Ilorin West local government of Kwara state this curriculum as it would change their actions relating to Climate Change. We should all know that climate issues is an inclusive issue that everybody must involve in to save our environment.”
Akintola Akinyemi Abraham, who is the winner from Ilorin East and also a representative of Green Globe Initiative, an environmental and climate based organisation focused on sustainable environment and economical agriculture presented his project which was how to fabricate interlocking stone using sand and plastics waste.
In his submission, Akinyemi stated that plastics waste has come to stay with humans and it is our responsibility to find ways to mitigate the volume of plastics waste in the environment.
“I commend Ilorin Global Shapers Community for their giant strides in a short period. It is evident that this hub is out to provide solutions to climate related problems facing communities in Ilorin.”
“As a winner in Ilorin Climate Action Challenge 1.0, I want to promise that myself and my organisation will never relent in our efforts to enlighten people and finding solutions to climate action problems in order to have a safe environment.”
Other participants are:
Opeoluwa Oyeyemi Ezekiel (Ilorin East)
Oyeniyi Shola (Ilorin East)
Chibuzor Nonye Osiegbu (Ilorin West)
Rejoice Omowunmi Olomidegun (Ilorin West)
[…] would be recalled that Ilorin Global Shapers had earlier organised a challenge on Climate Action to empower young people to create actionable solutions to local climate challenges in their […]