Climate change training for students in Oyo

As part of efforts to raise awareness about global climate change, a non-governmental organisation, Global Emerging Pathogens Treatment Consortium (GET), organised a training programme tagged “One Health School Project” for secondary schools students in Oyo State on climate change and its impact on humanity.

The 30 student participants from Loyola College, Ibadan, were trained as ambassadors to drive implementation of actions to combat climate change in their schools and society at large on a continuous basis.

The Project Manager, GET, Ifeoluwa Alabi, said there was a need to educate the younger generations on the holistic approach towards community health challenges.

Addressing the students, Alabi said it became necessary, looking at some key causes of climate change in the country, which include desertification, disease outbreak, flooding, insecurity and drought among others.

She explained that sensitising the students in the connection between the health of humans, animals and their shared environment would make the world a safer place adding that the training will build school students to be among first to help create the next generation of climate leaders.

She, therefore, charged the new ambassadors to cascade the information to the grassroots and take bold steps towards combating climate change impacts.
Earlier, she explained that the project was running currently in four schools in Oyo State, namely: Oluyole Community School, Qiblah High School, Loyola High School, and St. Catherine College.

Commending the state’s Ministry of Education for its support in evaluating the project to ensure its credibility on why should it be allowed to spread in public schools in the state, she said: “Our main goal is to inculcate the One Health Concept into the curriculum of the schools in the state; organise capacity-building for students on One Health-related field, develop One Health library for schools, and educate the students on career opportunities on the concept of climate change, among other opportunities.

In his response, the Principal of the school, Mr Akinlayo Akinade, represented by one of the vice principals, Mr Olufemi Moradeyo, appreciated the organisation and the GHSP team for choosing Loyola College as one of the pilot schools.