SOS Senior School Crowned Winners of GU Environment Quiz Competition

As part of its planned activities for the year 2009, Global Unification (GU), with the technical support from the

National Environment Agency on Saturday, 21st March 2009, organised an inter-school quiz competition on environmental matters.

This program entitled: School Challenge, was aimed, among other things to improve the level of awareness among young people on matters of environmental concern in the country. Four schools namely: GambiaSeniorSecondary School, SOSSeniorSecondary School, Daddy Jobe Senior Secondary and AppleTreeInternationalSchool participated in the event. The program which was carried out on the theme: Start today; Save the environment, was attended by personnel of other NGOs, members of the media and a cross section of the community.

In his opening statement, the National Representative of Global Unification in The Gambia, Mr. Ebrima S. Dem, thanked all those who made the program possible especially the participating schools. According to him, in this quiz, every body is a winner as participants will learn from each other.

Mr. Dem also dwelt on his association's objectives vis-a-vis the School Challenge program. According to him, Global Unification has observed with keen interest that in The Gambia, likewise in most other countries, young people form the most active group perpetrating environmental degradation, yet many of them are insensitive on how their actions are detrimental to the future of the environment, hence the need to educate them.

Speaking on behalf of the NEA Executive Director, Anneke Hielkema, lauded the School Challenge program, describing it as a noble initiative. According to her, environmental education is one of the key interventions of achieving environmental sustainability. Hence, it forms one of NEA's priority areas. She said that NEA has been investing in young people, through series of activities geared to making them environmentally friendly.

At end of the quiz, SOS Senior Secondary School was crowned winners with 140 points, followed by Gambia Senior Secondary School with 135 Points, whilst Daddy Jobe Senior Secondary, and Apple Tree International, got  85 and 80 points respectively.

Ms. Deborah Agboola, the association's children welfare coordinator and head of School Challenge Steering committee, gave the vote of thanks. The program ended with a video show on environment, and refreshments.