Weekly Roundup: We Read and Write for the Sake of Our Environment

By: Muawad Mustafa Rashid

It is estimated that 68% of the population of the world which is about 43.85 million are below 30 year of age.

Sudan is heading now to become a community of young people. This phenomenon created a social dynamics which were not yet tackled politically. In the early days of the glorious December Revolution, youth opted to martyrdom as  means of expressing their loyalty to the homeland and their political views. This happens with an unprecedented economic recess, as  the number of unemployed youth is estimated to 33%  according to international organizations’ reports, accompanied by complete absence of any future plans to deal with it. There is also cultural overlapping amid the generations a matter which had its impact on the political and social conduct of the political activists a matter that might lead to great deal of getting lost unless a party or several parties care for them and direct their energies to be utilized for their favour and  the homeland. It is recognized that most of the people of this category are secondary and university students.

The communications revolution contributed in weakening the reading conscience among the youth a matter that had its impact in the paper reading which was replaced by social media outlets with all its grammatical mistakes  besides the meaningless content in most cases. This resulted to the weakness of writing stills as the expression language included odd words that has its impact in culture in general. The scientific research became limited to a minor category despite its crucial role in our lives considering its goals aiming at building values and indigenization of ethics. This resulted to the domination of writing thesis and studies on (proxy) as matter that affirms the absence of the concerned research institutions.

As the syllabuses of education has its role in the declining of the cultural activities, the media in the last decades had also its role in the systematic misinformation.

Despite the global concern on environmental issues, we recognize that there is a kind of reluctance in dealing with it.

Unless there are appropriate dealings with the issue that includes the educational and media institutions through launching activities and competitions that encourage reading, writing and the artistic innovation.

In this regard the direct intervention of Biati Organization will take the lead  in the targeted secondary schools and universities through a media campaign to encourage reading considering that it helps in improving the mental and intellectual skills.

The activities will include, but not limited to, culture, competitions, training of teaching staff to enable acquire the follow-up skills and bringing the students out from life stress and to opt to mediation.

The time to the first stage of the general project should not exceed one year after which the evaluation of the results to be discussed to improve the syllabuses.

Haggar and Education:

Haggar Group was selected to be the sponsor of this project considering it as a national institution which its social objectives coincides with the goals of our organization. Haggar is considered a pioneering private institution in contributing in education and promoting environmental awareness through its direct effective interventions. It underscored the solidarity of the three sectors of the state i.e. public, private and civilian. This is what our organization is targeting through building the environmental conduct for the upcoming generations to live in safety and healthy environment.

The Targeted Category:

The project targets youth (males and females) for 14 years of age  and above represented directly by:

1. Secondary school students (800 thousand) and the Sudanese universities (600 thousand)
2. Youth in working places in the three sectors (300 thousand)

Indirectly hundreds of youth in the area of the target, their families, readers of their literature and intellectual production.

The Goal:

To raise environmental awareness via developing the reading conscience for youth (males and females), and to encourage them to read and environmental related content-making. We target8 secondary schools in greater Khartoum and states (3 boys schools, 3 girls schools, and 2 states (800 students) + 6 universities in greater Khartoum and states (600 students) for the purpose of:

1. Introducing the importance of reading and follow up of environmental issues, besides encouraging searching for books in different websites to pick the related articles and analyze it to link it with the local consequences.
2. Upgrading the skills and analyzing and documentation of the environmental phenomenon.
3. Upgrading the photographic and video skills to make the short films through training, besides utilizing the mobile capabilities  to deal with the Sudanese environment.
4. Providing the environmental library with youth media productions to contribute in expanding the awareness circle
5. Introducing the environmental values and developing he environmental conduct through the formation and training of environment friends (14 groups in the 14 targeted institutions)

This could be done through:

– organizing enlightenment sessions and discussions on environment-related issues.

– Organizing  reading and writing competitions _ photograph + making short films _ final competition for short researches.

6. Organizing workshops and training sessions to the teaching staff to enable them follow-up the activities.
7. The formation of environment friends in the targeted institutions
8. Displaying the products of the competitors in concentration on the winning works in the institutions and then in the various media outlets.
9. Production of pamphlets to promote the winning works.
10. Organization of art exhibitions and theatrical performances.

To make the above project a success it will need the support and encouragement of all concerned parties including government institutions, civil society organizations, private sector, Sudanese Business Federation,  etc.