Discovering environmental awareness: Burkina Djigui’s commitment
“Environmental education project” (Burkina Faso) by Moustapha KAONFO, National Coordinator of the Burkina Djigui association.
Instilling environmental values in children: the environmental education project.
The Burkina Djigui association is proud to share with the entire Youth Conservation community its members’ commitment to the environment and nature through its “citizen mobilisation” programme, which includes its environmental education project. The objectives of this project are multi-faceted and revolve around raising environmental awareness among the very young.
Desertification is a worrying phenomenon that threatens the ecological balance in many parts of the world, particularly in the Sahel. Burkina Faso has been hard hit by land degradation due to the effects of climate change. Faced with this major challenge, Burkina Djigui is implementing an environmental education project aimed at significantly combating this scourge. We came up with the idea of introducing the youngest children, who are the guardians of future generations, to environmental issues. Volunteers throughout the country, trained by Burkina Djigui with logistical support from Youth Conservation, take part in awareness-raising sessions in primary schools to teach children aged 9-14 about environmental protection and nature conservation. In addition to the theoretical awareness-raising sessions, plants are planted each time in the schools and the pupils are given responsibility in groups of five (05) with two teachers from the school to follow up. In addition to the work done by the volunteers, training modules are given to the authorities so that they can continue to raise awareness during off-peak hours. In addition to the educational aspect, the project also calls for a participatory ecological awareness. The aim is for children to grow up adopting responsible and sustainable behaviour. The aim is also to inform them about the issues involved in preserving biodiversity, managing natural resources, combating climate change and so on, so that they become eco-responsible citizens committed to a sustainable future.
Burkina Djigui’s environmental education project aims to raise environmental awareness not just among the youngest members of society, but among the entire population of Burkina Faso. We are working with all sections of society, especially the public, traditional and religious authorities and the parents of schoolchildren, to help these young people to become eco-responsible on a daily basis. This is how, together, we will win the battle against climate change and the fight for nature conservation. Without forgetting that the ecological question is a global issue, we are disseminating our knowledge, know-how and environmental know-how on our facebook, linkedin and X pages in order to facilitate interaction with all the other players in the world, especially by accepting criticism and support and by encouraging the replication of our actions in other localities. We are very happy to be with Youth Conservation on this trip and look forward to sharing the successes of the Environmental Education project, which is currently going very well in the field.
Burkina Djigui (which means “hope of Burkina”) is a youth association working mainly on sustainable development and citizenship. To date, we have carried out a number of awareness-raising activities, field trips, collective tree planting, environmental education and, above all, monitoring and evaluation in our areas of activity, particularly sustainable development. For example
In August 2021, Burkina Djigui carried out a responsible reforestation of 432 plants “one yard, one tree”, in the Marcoussis neighbourhood (Ouagadougou) for the benefit of 367 households.
Participation in the Climate March in October 2021 to help combat climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions;
In August 2022, with the support of the AUF Senegal, we carried out the “one student, one tree” project at the University of Saint Thomas d’Acquin (Ouagadougou), planting 600 trees on different sites to help restore certain endangered plant species. This project has reached over 50,000 people through our communication channels.
Trees donated to over 50 children on International Environment Day, 05 June 2022
The environmental education pilot project at the Bissighin public primary school in Ouagadougou on 05 June 2023 and at present throughout the country.
Monitoring-evaluation and maintenance of projects implemented: Burkina Djigui has set up one or more monitoring-evaluation teams for each of these projects to ensure the success of the project. For reforestation in particular, we have introduced an innovation called “Responsible reforestation”, which involves making each plant plant planted by Burkina Djigui responsible for its own actions.
