Blog
Sharing ‘Nepali students’ school environment initiatives’ memories with secondary school students of Cork, Ireland.
Dr Nabin Maharjan reflects on his workshops with secondary school students of Cork, where he presented on Nepali students’ school environment initiatives.
In December 2023 I gave a talk on Nepali students’ school environment initiatives with the secondary school students of Cork. It was at the annual Post Primary Human Rights Activism Conference, held in University College Cork annually. In the Kathmandu valley of Nepal, there is a student-led clean school environment initiative running for more than fifteen years. The Youth Climate Justice project is about children as leaders on environmental issues and work. This school student led initiative in Nepal is a strong example of children as environmental leaders.
It was an interesting experience to introduce students from all over Cork to the natural and cultural heritages of Nepal, to Nepali student-led environment-related initiatives in schools/communities, and to existing environmental challenges such as solid waste management problems. It was also valuable to reflect on my previous role as a city volunteer (ECCA Counsellor), teaching local Nepali students about the clean school environment. I was new in Cork city as an early career researcher in December 2023, so it was somewhat of a challenge to share information about Nepali students’ environment-related work. I was not sure whether Cork students had heard about the tiny country Nepal. However, the interest and engagement of the students of Cork was very encouraging. Professor Aoife Daly first talked about the international framework of children’s rights. She outlined that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child has several rights relevant to children and the environment. The principle of the best interests of the child enshrined in Article 3 for example means that governments have to think about children’s interests when taking decisions related to the environment. Article 12 means that governments have to give children a voice on such matters. Article 24 states that children have a right to a healthy environment. Children and youth have of course been taking their own action around the world, protesting, and taking cases to try to ensure that governments do more to stop the climate crisis.
I then shared my experience around working with Nepali students on initiatives to clean the local environment. I briefly talked about the establishment of nature clubs in each public school. Club members have taken the lead to clean and decorate their schools; as well as cleaning local world heritage sites/monuments on a regular basis. One example of this is five public schools with nature clubs agreed to participate in a mega clean-up campaign in one of the world heritage sites – Patan – and run the “One school, One Heritage” clean-up campaign where students from each school looked after one heritage site; cleaning and restoring the beauty of the site. The talk at University College Cork was a great opportunity for us to discuss children’s rights, including environmental rights, with Cork young people. Particularly, for me, it was an ideal platform to share how students from less industrialized countries are working at the local level to resolve such environmental problems, especially in Nepali schools and heritage sites through nature clubs. In the process of preparing my presentation, I connected with my old students once again who updated me about the current situation of these nature clubs in schools. It was great to hear that their nature clubs are still running smoothly; and include new initiatives like herbal gardening and mural arts. These nature club activities are sustained in local public schools from one generation to the other. Because of this, I am optimistic that local environmental efforts, which create environmentally conscious generations, will continue to work for cleaner environments at the local level.
I am grateful to have had a chance to meet with enthusiastic secondary students from Cork who share a common interest in keeping our planet clean. It was really positive to be able to share my lived experience working with Nepali children and youth. It was great to see the interest of Cork students in this topic. After my presentation, I hope some of the students from Cork may be inspired to work on innovative ideas/works to protect the environment in the future.