Activating the Kenyan Youth for a Bluer Planet
To mark World Ocean Day, June 8th, 2021, Ocean Sole took to the schools to engage the youth in Kilifi, Kenya, to raise awareness of marine litter, sea turtles and ocean conservation.
We conducted three educational workshops sessions in three schools in Kilifi; Takaungu Secondary School, St. Thomas Girls’ Secondary School and Kivukoni School. We reached over 1,000 young people in one day and we have just begun!
Our message is, “Our Ocean needs us to protect it, so be a Beach Ranger, and do your duty. A healthy ocean is a critical part of the solution to the climate crisis.”
Our youth need to understand how some of their habits, like tossing trash onto the beach, have an impact on our sea animals, coast lines and communities.
During our two-hour discussions, we showed an amazing film, “Bahari Yetu” which was made in Kenya in the Lamu archipelago. This film brought home how the livelihoods of coastal people are impacted by us all when we don’t respect our oceans and coastlines.
Ocean Sole, local communities and our youth are joining the global movement started by Ocean Unite, #Protect30x30. This movement, #Protect30x30, is a call to action to safeguard at least 30% of our Oceans by 2030. Creating protected marine areas, creating policies to stop destruction. Allowing our seas and sea animals to thrive again. Read more here: https://www.oceanunite.org/30-x-30/
Environmental conservation matters are often treated as the reserve of a few, as everyone else goes on doing business as usual and hoping for the best. Well, climate change is real, and it is happening right now, right here! We have coral bleaching, seagrass beds and mangroves disappearing and fish catches reducing by the day, and it is evident in our Indian Ocean where we work.
Our conservation team works with local coastal communities and sees the devastating impacts.
We are on a mission to contribute to the lofty goal of#Protect30x30 and are starting to mobilize our efforts for this focused mission and hope we can rally as many people in Kenya to join us. If we don’t all act soon, the future is bleak unless we change.
We need all hands-on deck for ocean conservation. We need everyone to understand the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) purpose and mission in order to take action; stop the destructive habits and choices and embrace sustainable use. We need everyone, especially the young people, to demand that their governments formulate and implement policies that help nature to thrive. We cannot afford to do nothing and hope for the best.
We, at Ocean Sole, have taken up the responsibility to reach out to children and the youth. To enlighten them on the status of our blue planet, the opportunity to change for better, and support them to innovate and implement ideas that will stop the downward trend.
At Ocean Sole, we are devoted to our Oceans, be part of the movement with us! #Protect30x30.