By Bashir Hassan Abubakar
A Bauchi Based NGO known as Community Advocates for Rural Development (CARD) were in Baraza community of Dass LGA recently on an awareness campaign to enlighten people of the locality on the harzards associated with climate change resulting from human activities.
CARD staff, together with the community climate advocates were seen on ground going from settlement to settlement, market squares and other public places enlightening the community on the dangers of felling threes, indescrimibate dumping of plastic containers, polyethylene bags and other non biodegradable materials that aggravates global warming.
Speaking at the house of District head of Baraza shortly before embarking on the awareness walk , Executive Director of CARD Mrs. Habiba Ajufoh, represented by CARD program manager, Hajiya Safiya Bala said that the objective of the awareness campaign was to educate members of the community on the harzards of climate change that is mostly triggered by human activities.
Ajufoh disclosed that the awareness campaign was in collaboration with Development Exchange Center (DEC) under a program tagged “Rural Women Climate Advocates” (RUWOCA).
Ajufoh further revealed that the RUWOCA program is being funded under DEC’s small scale project fund, which is being supported by Bread for All, a humanitarian group from Germany.
The ED then expressed her hope that the community would embrace the awareness campaign so as to mitigate climate warming and also preserve the environment for agricultural activities.
Speaking on the side line with our correspondent in her capacity as CARD program manager, Hajiya Safiya Bala said that the choice of Baraza community for the awareness campaign was based on the fact that CARD had been working in the community and that her organisation has been implementing the RUWOCA Project in Baraza since June 2023 and will run through may 2024.
“As a result of our engagement in Baraza, 85 percent of our beneficiaries have switched to renewable energy usage in their homes. We want everybody in the community to imbibe this culture through behavioural change with a view to surmounting environmental degradation”, the program manager said.
Responding on behalf of the District head, his secretary, Mallam Muhammad Abubakar Baraza said the awareness campaign was a welcome development.
He thanked the NGOs for consistently implementing its climate change programs in Baraza community, pointing out that, already greater percentage of community people have imbibe the culture of renewable energy.
Our correspondent report that after going round community, the NGOs held an interface with community members,where questions and answers ensured.
Some of the community members who spoke to our correspondent expressed their happiness on the knowledge they gained during the awareness campaign and further resolved to champion the course of mitigating climate warming within the community.