HUMANITY OR NOTHING
More than a dozen Environmental Enthusiasts, Climate Change activist and a Sustainable Environment volunteers set out that peaceful Sunday evening to some of the remotest rural communities in Gwagwalada Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria, Abuja. The weather that day was calm and a bit pleasant to the skin but the temperature was the usual Gwagwalada one, high. On arrival, after some minutes of driving from our rendezvous wherein we agglomerate to set out, our car tyres began to cruise the rough terrain of Dukpa community and outside the windows were ordinary citizens carrying out their daily activities without giving a hoot about what was going on out there in the outside world.
Finding a place to park, we set out to meet up with our host who led us to the Emir’s palace, the head of that community. Taking with us the whole kit and caboodle, we were ushered into the Emir’s palace with a warm reception. We reiterated our intentions for paying that community a visit as well as to donate and install Sawyer water filters to key places in the community. After a brief address, we set up our items showing the people who had come to meet us at the palace the assemblage and how to use the water filters. Next, we were taken to the Health Centre they have in that community. Just outside the palace is a borehole and an overhead tank which provides water for the people there. The overhead tank has been battered by the weather and its top has been destroyed thus exposing its content to pathogens such as bacteria and fungi. Nonetheless, this is the water the people are drinking here.
Our blood froze within us in that hot weather on seeing where they call their clinic. Not only was it in a deplorable state, it didn’t look like a place a person would go to receive medical attention. There and then we realized how lucky we were and how much in need and want these people were. In a whole community, there was not a standard clinic or hospital to treat people or assist women in putting to bed. It is unfortunate that vital and essentials of life such as health care, good water and a host many others were lacking in Dukpa community.
Right there at the excuse for a clinic, we installed some water filters showing those in charge how it can be used, maintained and replaced if worn out. Dupka community is in dire need of health care, potable water and other essentials of life. It is expedient that these people are provided with these basic needs and indispensable services. Step-Up Green Climate Warriors Initiative would be coming back to Dukpa first and other communities to carry out other projects in the near future while we look out for grants and partnership.
The United Nations had over the years revealed 17 goals it hopes to achieve on the planet within the next two decades and these are called the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is expedient that organisations, governments and good citizens of the Earth key into and strive to achieve some of these goals. The water project embarked upon by Step-Up Green Climate Warriors Initiative in partnership with SUKHI 222 is an attempt to bring about the actualisation of some of these goals:
Goal 3: Good health and well-being
Goal 6: Clean water and sanitation
Goal 13: Climate change
In this novel stage of our water project, we are donating and installing light weight water filters to rural communities who barely have access to clean and potable water, health care and sanitation. In partnership with SUKHI 222, Sawyer water filters were sent from the United States which we’ve been distributing to schools and communities so far. The Sawyer water filters can filter: Bacteria: Botulism (Clostridum botulinum), Typhoid, E.Coli, Coliform Bacteria, Streptococcus, Vibrio cholera, Salmonella Typhi, Leptospirosis, and Protozoan (Cyst): Giardia, Cryptosporidium, Cyclospora and Micro-Plastics from water. It is portable and very easy to set up, this gives it flexibility.
When we were done with Dukpa community, the team set out to another rural community in Gwagwalada. This was another long ride under the hot weather of Gwagwalada. We arrived at Paiko villahge and we were warmly received by our host. In this community, the main problem is the lack of a standard school to accommodate the increasing population of children of school age. The makeshift school is a mud brick blocks of classrooms with no doors nor windows and the only thing inside them were a few desk and a blackboard. Some of the classrooms didn’t even have desks in them.
Our host who happens to be the leader there told us that it aches his heart to see that these children are not receiving quality education due to lack and abandonment by the government. He is optimistic that our visitation however would open doors for them, giving them access to quality education and other essentials of life. We also donated and installed some water filters to them showing them how it is used, maintained and can be replaced if worn out. We intend also to return to Paiko community in the near future to execute other projects that these people would benefit from.
A few days later, we visited other schools in Gwagwalada town and these include Gadonasko primary school and Madonna international primary and secondary school. Some Sawyer water filters were also donated to the schools and some of the kids in these schools had fun installing the water filters.
With our very little contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals we have put smiles on the faces of people in remote communities in the FCT of Nigeria. But this is just a tip on the iceberg. We would go to these communities and more communities with bigger projects and a wider coverage.
At Step-Up Green Climate Warriors Initiative we are a team and Together Everyone Achieves More.
Let’s take responsibility.
-Imoikor Joshua
