Ninety six schools in New Ireland Province (NIP) will undertake a climate change outreach program by the end of the year.
The program is carried out by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) based in NIP with 33 schools in the Kavieng, Tikana, Namatanai, Tigak and Lavongai districts already visited by the team so far.
The team, consisting of WCS staff and community facilitators, conducted awareness and educational activities related to climate change issues to the students and teachers.
The outreach program is a new climate change initiative by WCS aimed to educate children on climate change, its impacts and adaptation methods.
The program equips students and teachers with climate change information that could help them cope with the changes as individuals.
Outreach team leader and WCS community engagement officer Francis Gove said teachers have been overwhelmed with the program as many schools have limited and outdated climate resources.
Namatanai Primary School teacher Wilfred Daulai said the program has added value to students’ background knowledge on climate change.
The scheme is funded by the Australian government’s direct aid program through the distribution of climate change resource materials and awareness to schools.
Daulai urged students and teachers to be climate smart through reading and understanding the educational resources such as the posters that were distributed to the school during the outreach.
(Picture: WCS Team)