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International Volunteer Day 2009 - Nepal
Urban Agriculture & Waste Management and Stand-still protest to raise awareness on Climate change
Mr. Karma Loday, UNV Programme Support Officer, delivering message from UN on IVD
Under the theme, volunteering for our planet for 2009, UNV Nepal along with other Volunteer Sending Agencies (VSA) in Nepal supported the implementation of two events in Kathmandu on the occasion of International Volunteers Day (IVD) 2009: Training on urban agriculture & waste management and a stand-still protest to appeal on Climate change.
The training program on Urban Agriculture & Waste Management in Kathmandu was organized with the initiative of United Youth for Peace, the active local youth organization in Nepal in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture in Nepal.
Contamination and pollution in urban areas are major environmental issues, common particularly in most developing countries. With no exception, Nepal faces the same challenges including food shortages, especially during monsoon season, where, due to landslides and road blockades, daily imported food supplies are hampered.
Nepal is listed as one of the countries where food and nutritional demands for its people are not met through the current agricultural production and practices. Besides the natural calamities, urbanization and urban sprawl is usually blamed for it and also for the increase in the reliance of food, imported from neighboring countries.
The initiative by United Youth was intended to support urban population not only in environment preservation but also in economic and social aspects: for creating clean environment and introducing alternatives in alleviating food shortage. None other than the school students, the future citizens of Nepal, would have been the perfect targets to make them aware and understand the current challenges faced by Nepal and her people. Hence, the major purpose for conducting this program was to create a social bond between the youth and the future citizens of Nepal in order to comprehend and approach such problems in solidarity. By involving the youth Volunteers and school students it also expected to ensure future preparedness against such challenges.
About 300 enthusiastic youth Volunteers from different youth organizations were selected to be trained on Urban Agriculture & Waste Management. The training for trainers was conducted a week in advance and on 4th December, facilitated by United Youth, all these Volunteers visited about 60 local high schools that volunteered to host such program. Information on alternative to food shortages were shared and proper management of waste at home, including techniques for utilizing bio-degradable garbage inside the house was introduced.
The students were shown how to grow fruits and vegetables using composts made out of kitchen garbage and water recycling system utilising basic scientific and low cost technology.
Volunteers gathering at Ratnapark for stand-still protest on IVD
The second event followed on the 5th of December 2009, a 1-day programme started with a stand-still protest by the youth and students of Nepal, which took place in Ratnapark, in the center of Kathmandu.
Nepal due to its geographical location in the Himalayan region, the peoples of Nepal is experiencing the effect of the global warming, particularly in the Mountains and hilly areas of the Tarai region. The rate at which the snow is melting is found to be very alarming, which is causing the glacier lakes to increase by the day. Currently more than 20 glacier lakes are at high risk of outburst. In 2009, Nepal experienced numerous unseasonal floods in western part of the country. Evidence of the presence of mosquitoes in the once cold Mountains has been reported.
The stand-still protest by the youth of Nepal was organized with an intention to put pressure on the National government and the World Leaders to address the issue on global warming more seriously at COP 15 conference which was held on 7 December 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
About 700 Volunteers from different youth organizations, including International NGOs gathered for the stand-still protest. A representative from the National Planning Commission (NPC) of Nepal attended the event as the chief guest. The Prime Minister of Nepal is the chairman of the NPC of Nepal. The petition banner signed by more than thousands of youth from all parts of Nepal was handed over to the representative of NPC. One behalf of UNV Programme Mr. Karma Loday, UNV Programme Support Officer - UNMIM, delivered a speech and read out the message from the Secretary General of the United Nations on the International Volunteer Day. The program concluded with more speeches from the guests and an environment related Nepali song was performed by one of the JICA Volunteers. The event was covered by the local media and broadcasted on the same day.