Environmental Educational Youth Action Task Program

Abstract

An educational environmental youth camp was held comprising of fifty one 16-year old secondary students and facilitated by volunteers from the university and Friends of the Earth, a non profit organization in Penang.  A weekend camp on youth action task program was held at an isolated beach packed with activities that were structured towards environmental good sense. Five activities were conducted with the volunteers as moderators.  The main objective of the camp was to create more perceptive understanding on the environmental importance to the community, and the need for the community to protect the environment.  The students were brought to the realms of nature and issues currently plaguing our towns, cities and countryside. With the coming in contact with nature, the veracity of the environmental issues was infused into the students. The activities began with an ice breaking sessions with the facilitators, jungle trekking, ‘life chain’, ‘issues and its realities’, ‘action plan’ and wrapped by developing resolutions.  Each of these activities  were practical learning and  fun filled experiences that were well guided by facilitators  who were themselves dedicated volunteers in the youth action task program. The program ended with meeting the teachers at the respective schools to further develop the activities at school, interschool, and community and intercommunity levels.  It is also hoped that these students will be able to be continuously be active in the youth action task program and be the advocates and proponents to support the environment.