When Mother Earth Sends Us A Message

Wednesday, April 20, 2022

International Mother Earth Day celebration is a reminder to each one of us that earth and its ecosystems provide us with life and sustenance. This day is an opportunity to raise public awareness around the world to the importance and challenges of the well-being of our planet and all the life it supports. Education is the foundation of this awareness. We need to empower everyone, especially children, with the knowledge to inspire action in defense of the protection of environment and be the future leaders on the matter.

Because a green future is a prosperous future.

In today’s climate, it is more important than ever to understand the importance of recycling and preventing waste to reduce our environmental footprint. Recycling paper helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that can contribute to climate change. It takes 70% less energy and water to recycle paper than to create new paper from trees. Teaching students about recycling in schools means that children are more likely to adopt it as a habit and become conscientious adults. A school paper-recycling program can educate students about the environment, teach personal responsibility, and spark an interest in community action. The impact of these programs can reach beyond the school level; to the families, communities, and eventually, the planet. Incorporating environmental education activities in schools, like recycling, has been shown to increase students' achievement in reading, science, social studies and mathematics. These projects can help students enhance their critical thinking skills, leadership qualities and problem solving techniques.

As part of its commitment to engage the next generations in recycling practices, World Vision created eco clubs at schools' level, which are formed of students and teachers from 37 schools. These clubs carry out paper recycling activities in their schools, as part of their voluntary work, to give children the chance to sort and recycle paper themselves, make their own material, and learn the basics of paper sorting and recycling. This activity encourages children to do their part by following three simple steps: reduce, reuse, and recycle. These activities were complemented with training workshops organized by teachers, to provide students with the knowledge on recycling procedures. 

In these clips, we will see how students recycle old paper and use it to develop educational tools that help simplify their lessons and facilitate communication and social interaction between students. This activity took place as part of the “Promoting Environment Friendly Practices and Green Schools in Palestine” project, which targeted 37 public schools, reaching 9,079 students, in the West Bank Governorates of Hebron, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Salfit and Nablus. This project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and is implemented by World Vision, in cooperation with the Palestinian Ministry of Education and other partners.

This project concluded early this year. However, the 37 schools are still implementing the environmental friendly actions and intervention under the green schools concept. The project's final evaluation showed that 88% of the targeted students implement the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) techniques, which they learned in this project, at their schools and their homes. 80% of them educate and talk to others (students, family members, etc.) about the 3Rs activities and their benefits. 98% of targeted students expressed their willingness to continue as members of their schools' environmental clubs after the end of the project.


For Mother Earth - together for everyone, everything, every day!

#InvestInOurPlanet