I am ready to save the Earth!

When you see young people caring for the environment and trying to find solutions to reduce the pollution, you just feel better.

The Syrian Climate Pioneers is a non-profit foundation that presents its programs through a voluntary team of Syrian youth that knows the risks of climate change and the daily challenges caused by irresponsible consuming.

The founder Farah Al-Asa’ad stated: “I believe that Goal 13 -the climate action- must be focused on by specialists in this field, and since I am not a specialist, I decided to establish the Syrian Climate Pioneers Foundation which embraces specialists in this field.”

“Our foundation has five programs to work on; the first is to increase the vegetation cover by planting more trees. The second is the green transformation in sectors because any sector should be part in this transformation. The third program supports the youth who does not have any legal cover and it is called ‘Take Action for Climate’. The fourth program, which is a cultural one, deals with the Syrian culture as a tool to tackle issues related to the environment. Finally we have the green entrepreneurship program”, Farah added.

The Syrian Climate Pioneers Foundation recently held an event marking the opening of a new centre called “Earth”. The project has two ideas; the first is has to do eco-friendly materials, while the second one deals with community cohesion.

The Earth project consists of three stages: the first one is the orange tree planting initiative in old Damascus. The second stage includes the training of 15 male and female youths and 15 women and to teach them project management. The last stage of the Earth project will include interactive activities such as music performances, plays, dialogue sessions and others.

One of the participants in this event, artist Majd Al-Kaidie, designed a painting using cardboard, nylon bags and other waste objects. The wok reflects the impact of this waste on the environment. Al-Kaidie stressed that: “When the foundation asked me to participate, I did some research about the environment, what are the things that destroy it and how to reduce this damage. I knew the importance of having centers to educate and spread more awareness among people, especially the young, of how to protect the environment and be influential”.

The event also included a play presented by Hussam Ghzaiel, a volunteer in the foundation. Ghzaiel said: “On the occasion of the opening of “Earth” Center, we presented something from our heritage, so we used shadow theatre and tried to have the painting talk about important details of our heritage and social life that had a positive impact that we may have overlooked and ignored without focusing on their importance.”

It is noteworthy that the foundation hosts the Local Climate Change Conference for youth in Syria (LCOY). It also made a project called “Always for Earth”, which is a blog written on the foundation website taken from reliable sources that cover various environmental topics to help the youth and researchers, and it serves as a reference to all the agreements signed by Syria and Syria’s  commitments to environment sustainable development.

Najla Khoury