Four island schools in the Mamanuca: Namamanuca Primary School, Malolo District School, Mana SDA School and Ratu Lalabalavu Memorial Secondary School marked three significant days on our Environment Calendar.
International Day of Forests, World Water Day and World Meteorological Day were celebrated by these four schools on the 26th of March. The event was marked in each respective school with a half day program.
International Day of Forests is marked worldwide on the 21st of March, with this year’s theme “My Forest Our Future”. World Water Day is marked every 22nd of March, this year the theme was “Water and Energy”, followed closely by World Meteorological Day which is marked every 23rd March with the theme “Weather and Climate – Engaging Youth”
The four respective schools adopted these themes into the days activities which included oratory contest, poster competitions, leaf art competitions, t-shirt printing, wind instrument models, tree planting and school clean up.
Each school was divided into three categories of lower, middle and upper levels and designated a theme. The lower levels consisting of classes one, two and three were assigned the World Water Day theme, the middle level consisting of classes four, five and six were assigned the International Day of Forests theme, and the upper level of classes 7, 8 and Form 3 were assigned the World Meteorological Day theme.
MES team were divided into three groups to facilitate in each island school namely Malolo, Yanuya and Mana.
Yanuya Island is home to Namamanuca Primary School; Malolo Levu Island is home to Malolo District School and Ratu Lalabavu Memorial Secondary School; and Mana island home to Mana SDA School. Ratu Lalabalavu Secondary School joined Malolo District School in celebrating the event.
The start of the program at each island started on different times mainly determined by the arrival of the Tiger 4 to each island. Nevertheless all the three schools followed the same program.
Namamanuca Primary School and Malolo District School were fortunate and honoured to have as chief guests Mr Sakaraia Serau and Mr Taniela Bose both Health Inspectors at the Nadi Town Council.
The students singing from the assembly area indicated that they were ready to start the program.
Kicking off the program was the head teachers prayer and briefing to students on the reason for the day’s program and its importance. Chief guests then delivered their speech along with a demonstration of composting followed by a power point presentation from the MES facilitator for the day.
This was followed by the oratory contest with orators speaking on the three themes of their choice. The lower classes then engaged in t-shirt printing focusing on World Water Day. The days activities culminated with tree planting and a school clean up.Before the close of the program, winners from each category were awarded certificates and prizes in appreciation for their efforts.
MES would like to thank our sponsors and partners for their contribution towards a successful World Water, Forest and Meteorological Day.
Fiji Airways and SPC/GIZ (Coping with Climate change impact in the Pacific Region) for sponsoring the prizes.
Forestry Department Lautoka for providing tree seedlings.
Partners in Community Development Fiji, Red Cross Lautoka Branch, Meteorological Office Nadi, Ministry of Health- Rural Local Authority Lautoka/Yasawa and Nadi Town Council for providing posters and resource materials that were used for display and also distributed to schools.
Big thanks also to member resorts for proving transfers for the day.
