The Environmental Community Health Organisation (ECHO) has established ECHO Clubs in Region 7, a release from the organisation said.
A number of activities had been identified in schools in the Cuyuni/Mazaruni region to facilitate greater interaction between the students and the natural environment. These included an environmental audit of school yards, developing logs to identify plants, birds, and insects, activities that would highlight the effects of climate change and global warming and energy conservation. As a result, ECHO has 30 clubs in the schools, there.
The objectives of ECHO Clubs are to raise awareness of environmental and community health issues within the regions, to provide information on personal hygiene to the students attending schools in the regions, to provide a forum for students, parents and teachers to work together to protect and preserve the health of the environment and their local communities, to encourage students, teachers and parents to take responsibility for the physical state of their general surroundings.
Meanwhile, the release said that Representative of PAHO/WHO Adrianus Vlugman, the Ministry of Education, Bounty Farm and Western Union provided critical interventions in that venture. Noting that it was clear that different regions would have specific health, community and environmental needs, the release said, a number of recommendations were made including: setting up an ECHO office in the region, the provision of refuse receptacles for residents in those local communities, holding face-to-face community meetings, promoting environmental awareness and education, and establishing community development groups in the region, the release added.
