AYV News, June 11, 2024
The Environment Protection Agency Sierra Leone wraps up the week-long World Environment Day 2024 celebration with a Green Run from Cotton Tree to Aberdeen Beach.
Participants were drawn from the Office of the Chief Minister, the Presidential Initiative on Climate and Renewable Energy and Food Security (PI-CREF), the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, the National Disaster Management Authority, the Ministry of Health, the Conservation Society of Sierra Leone, the National Protected Area Authority and Conservation Trust, the Ministry of Information and Civic Education, Sierra Leone Metreological Agency, and other agencies.
Development partners such as UNIDO Sierra Leone, UNDP in Sierra Leone, World Bank, #MCC, Action Aid, Christian Aid Sierra Leone, Red Cross Sierra Leone, and civil society organisations such as Women in Mining and Extractive (WOME), Women in Environment and Climate Change (WOMECC), partners in the private sector such as #Africell Sierra Leone, #Gulf Water, #American Conservative Initiative, #DelAgua Sierra Leone, #Kadat, #Capitol Food, teacher coordinators and pupils from our nature clubs, and members of the general public also participated.
They all, in their respective speeches, underscored the essence of building a sustainable environment in which healthy lives and investments can thrive. They described the event as an opportunity to showcase their support for environmental protection, stating that it takes our collective resolve to build a sustainable and secure future for Sierra Leone.
The Executive Chairman, Abu-Bakar S. Massaquoi, welcomed his guests and appreciated their wholesome participation and support. He described World Environment Day as one of the countless days the agency uses to popularise and heighten its public education mandate.
He said the Green Marathon is a planned event that the agency intends to turn into a yearly tradition, and it will extend to others the platform to showcase their resolve to environmental stewardship. Dr. Abu-Bakar S. Massaquoi acknowledged that it entails a massive and rigorous effort to effectively manage and protect the environment, but it is attainable if we all strive to adopt sustainable practices that mitigate damage to the planet, our only home.
He furthered that the Green Run is not just an environmental awareness initiative; it is a show of solidarity to protect, manage, and secure the environment for generations yet to come.
The program concluded with the award of plaques and certificates to the first ten participants to finish the marathon.
