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 CONSERVATION 

📍 West Nile

This year, the second edition of the Green School Initiative climate change competition will see cash prizes won per region as well as at the national level.

It's a welcome development from the inaugural edition last year that had prizes reserved at the national level.

"This time around, we will be having regional prizes because we want people to take on these activities, said Sidney Miria, the Green Schools Initiative coordinator.

He said they want people to take on recycling, plant trees, make good use of the environment and protect the environment.

"We only have one planet and we have one gift to give to the future generation and that is this planet. We have to leave it in a good state,” said Miria, who is also the head of special projects at New Vision.

 WATCH   'Climate change is a very big problem'


This year's competition is themed around climate change innovations that work.

After the regional debate qualifiers — the first track of the initiative — concluded last month and saw 30 schools qualify for the nation championships, the second track, which is projects, got under way on Tuesday (July 16).

The evaluation team, split into two to cover the western and eastern axes concurrently, started visiting the schools on Tuesday in West Nile and Karamoja regions.

 WATCH   'We went through a selection process'


Antonio Querido, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) country director, flagged off the team on Monday at the FAO head offices in Kampala.

The Green Schools Initiative is being implemented by Vision Group in partnership with FAO and funded by the Embassy of Sweden in Uganda. 

The evaluation exercise will run for just over two weeks in 10 regions across the country.

So why is the Green Schools Initiative using schools as the entry point?

“This is because young people are adaptable and we think that when we allow them to interact with this information, they will begin to take on the actions that will help in the adaptation and mitigation of climate change,” said Miria.

In West Nile, five of the ten initiative schools were selected for projects evaluation. 

"We went through a selection process to determine the schools that have been implementing the projects," explained Miria.

He said that no one should say that climate change is not their problem because everyone has a carbon footprint.

By visiting schools, they aim to see what the students are doing to reduce this very carbon footprint.

"We want learners to think outside the box and come up with solutions that they imagine can help with adaptation or mitigation," said Miria in reference to this year's theme.

 WATCH   'There is a cash prize per region'


Last year, St Kizito High School bagged sh12 million for having the best climate change project.

In second place was Kololo Senior Secondary School (sh10 million), Tororo Girls School in third (sh7.5 million) and Kibubura Girls Secondary School in fourth (sh6 million).

Gayaza High School and Immaculate Heart School Nakibare were fifth and sixth, respectively and received sh5 million each.