MANILA, Philippines – There is a looming uncertainty as to what the future holds when it comes to the environment. To prepare the future generation, the children of today must be equipped with ample knowledge and a greater appreciation for the environment to help them become tomorrow’s protectors of Mother Earth. And the key to this is environmental education.
Realizing the importance of educating children in preserving nature, NEC Philippines has recently launched NEC World Children’s Nature Club for the first time in the Philippines with the same goal of promoting environmental awareness among Filipino children and help them become responsible and more proactive in protecting and improving the environment.
“It is good to instill environment social awareness to children,” said NEC Philippines President Agnes Gervacio. “At a very young age they would be able to develop, practice & contribute solutions in solving environmental problems or at least minimize them.”
The launch of the program is in line with NEC’s regional community contribution activities “NEC Make-a-Difference Drive,” which aims to address issues revolving around the environment, youth education, and the community.
Gervacio said the program will involve activities that provide real, hands-on learning to children and help them make informed decisions in environmental protection. “As they go through with the program, they will become more aware about how the environment affects the community. The program will also reinforce new development programs for a sustainable environment and community,” Gervacio said.
Benguet-based non-government organization Cordillera Green Network Inc. (CGN), a group that conducts environment educational workshops and programs in the Cordillera Administration Region for youth and children, was tapped by NEC to spearhead the initiative. The environmental group is the fifth organization to partner with NEC for the initiative, after NEC partnered with the Kiyosato Educational Experiment Project (KEEP) for the first NEC World Children’s Nature Club in 2008.
“For this year’s NEC World Children’s Nature Club, we chose the Cordillera Green Network because of how similar theirs and our programs are. For us, this synergy would take the initiative further, allowing us to influence more children and make a bigger impact on the environment and the communities,” said Gervacio.
“We feel very honored to be working with an international brand like NEC because this will give us the push that we need in making our goals a reality,” CGN official said.
Through the program, children from Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan and China are educated about their environment, allowing them to “share their discoveries and experiences of joy and thrill with children in other regions” while also “broadening their perspective from the local level to understand the uniqueness of their own environment and culture to the global level to understand the differences of other regions.”
In addition to fostering the awareness of children on nature and the environment, NEC World Children’s Nature Club also aims to verify the possibility of information technology use in environmental education.