Our City 2030 Holds Workshop with Youth on Plans, Visions and Solutions for Quezon City
March 2019
Teachers and students from Balingasa High School, Judge Feliciano Belmonte Sr. High School, Justice Cecilia Munoz-Palma High School and the Alternative Learning System (ALS) join staff from Environmental Protection and Waste Management Department (EPWMD) of Quezon City, WWF-Philippines and PLAN International – Philippines for a photo opportunity. Photograph © WWF-Philippines / Dino Calderon
A three-day youth workshop attended by students and teachers of various Quezon City schools, as well as select learners from Quezon City’s Alternative Learning System (ALS) classes, was recently held as part of the Our City 2030 project – a joint effort of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and PLAN International designed to capacitate and create spaces for the youth to contribute to the sustainable development of their home cities.
Students discuss issues of safety in their urban setting during one of the workshops’ modules. The workshop was designed to impart the mindsets and capacities needed for students to think about sustainable development. Photograph © WWF-Philippines / Alo Lantin
Said workshop tackled contemporary issues of urban planning, city living, and the threats to vulnerable populations posed by natural disasters, enabling the young participants to discuss what they wanted to see in their cities and what measures could be taken to improve their places of living.
“With the projection that majority of the population in the future will be living in cities, these cities have an important role in coming up with transformative solutions in line with the Paris Agreement and the 1.5C global warming goal,” said Imee Bellen, Project Manager of WWF-Philippines. Workshops, which aim to foster the mindsets and capacities needed for students to begin thinking about sustainable development, are being held with partner schools as part of the first phase of the project.
Marie Kristie Amador, Project Coordinator of PLAN International – Philippines, is surrounded by students as she joins the audience for a module. Photograph © WWF-Philippines / Alo Lantin
Attendees from Quezon City’s ALS classes, Balingasa High School, Judge Feliciano Belmonte Sr. High School, and Justice Cecilia Muñoz-Palma High School were able to get key learnings from training modules by the Our City 2030 project team and crucial knowledge points on the state of the planet and what has to be done for conservation from the WWF-Philippines Environmental Education team. Teachers from each partner school were also asked to conduct demo teaching on Air, Water, and Solid Waste. This served as practice for the teachers when they roll out Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into their regular school lectures.
“With kids we like to think, oh, they’re just children, what do they know? But children have a right to participate, a right to say what they feel, a right to be listened to and taken seriously. So the kids should say, listen to me, because we have something to contribute,” said Marie Kristy Amador, Project Coordinator of PLAN International – Philippines who believes that as future leaders and inheritors of Earth, the youth should start early in becoming champions of sustainability in order for them to be prepared for the changes that are to come.
A student presents the work of her group. Our City 2030 recognizes the importance of giving the youth an early start in thinking about sustainability and development. Photograph © Alo Lantin / WWF-Philippines
At the end of the workshop, the participants were able to create a consolidated vision for the youth of Quezon City:
“We, the youth of Quezon City, dream of a progressive and peaceful city, wherein the citizens are content, respectful, disciplined, and united towards freely achieving equal rights to clean and safe environment and quality education by 2030”.
Basing from this vision, they also proposed possible solutions for Quezon City by 2030. These vision and solutions will be presented in the next activity on August, wherein city officials and other stakeholders will be invited as well.
“We need to be prepared. We can’t always rely on other people… With the things that we are faced with now, we should have an open mind. [The youth needs] to stand up to issues of the environment and be awake,” said Brian Caronino, a student from Balingasa High School.
The Our City 2030 team hopes that, coming out of these workshops, student participants will be able to think independently on development issues and to work and act together on them.
For more information, please contact:
Atty. Angela Consuelo Ibay
Head, Climate and Energy Programme
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Ms. Imee Bellen
One Planet City Challenge Project Manager
ibellen@wwf.org.ph
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Mr. Dan Ramirez
Communications and Media Manager
dramirez@wwf.org.ph
