Children learn about the environment
Local companies teach children to protect the environment.
Representatives from Aberdare Cables, an Elandsfontein-based company, recently participated in an Environmental Awareness Week.
The company, together with Powertech Secretariat, visited Primrose Primary School on Wednesday, June 25, and provided Grade Three and Grade Four pupils, a total 160 youngsters, with an overview of what environmental sustainability is.
They also explained what Aberdare Cables does and how the company leads by example, with the recycling of waste into new products and sending all waste oils to chemical treatment plants instead of a landfill.
David Coutts and Johnson Mbodla, from the Aberdare safety and risk team, wearing their luminous yellow and orange safety jackets, caught the children’s’ attention.
They spoke to the pupils about natural resources and how these are vital to human survival.
They explained how human population growth influences all environmental problems, and spoke about the “ecological footprint”, challenges faced in agriculture, pollution, climate, biodiversity, and how our energy choices will affect our future.
The student were taken back, even gasping in surprise at Coutts’s picture of a giant foot stepping over a landscape to indicate the concept of what an ecological footprint is and the impact this ecological foot print has on the environment.
Maggie Letsoenyo and Busisiwe Sengoayo from Aberdare Cables and Marina Schuster from Powertech Secretariat assisted the children in pledging their commitment to looking after their environment.
The children did this by placing their fingerprints on hand-printed A3 cards.
These cards will be displayed in their classrooms, to serve as a reminder of their commitment.
The children also participated in a colouring-in competition, where three lucky winners received a school bag containing some stationery.
Food and Trees for Africa were also invited to attend the event and assisted pupils in a tree-planting exercise.
The children were taught a short song as they planted the trees.
“Aberdare Cables, Powertech Secretariat and Food and Trees for Africa felt proud of having made this contribution to these children’s lives,” said Elizabeth Defillo, Powertech Secretariat’s company secretary.
