The “Our Green Footprint” team in As-Suwayda governorate represents one of the volunteer teams aimed at spreading environmental awareness among community members through several initiatives and activities it carries out.
One of the team's founders, Nisreen Makarem, stated that the team was established about 6 months ago and includes about 35 volunteers of various ages, especially from the youth generation, including agricultural engineers, as it seeks to spread awareness about mechanisms to mitigate the factors causing climate change and ways to adapt to it.
Makarem indicated that “the idea of establishing the team came after she benefited from the experience of working with one of the teams and realizing the danger of climate change and the necessity of raising awareness about it and mitigating the factors causing it. Therefore, she set out to establish the ‘Our Green Footprint’ team and chose a group of people interested in public affairs who work with enthusiasm and dedication, and provide the best of their capabilities.”
Makarem continued that the team has implemented several activities during the past period, including planting 150 stone pine seedlings in the village of Al-Hayat, where each person planted one seedling in front of their house which they are currently caring for. Also, 50 bitter almond seedlings were planted in the Dahr Al-Jabal area, and a young volunteer from the team, Aktham Al-Shoufi, pledged to take care of them, in addition to planting 100 oak seedlings in the Dahr Al-Jabal area provided by agricultural engineer Omar Al-Halabi.
The team also organized, according to Makarem, a doll-making workshop before Christmas under the supervision of Ms. Kinda Baraka at the “Art Space for All” center, where 75 dolls were made through recycling, as this process is one of the means to mitigate the impact of climate change, as it preserves Earth's resources and reduces gas emissions resulting from factories. Awareness sessions were also provided within the Youth Center at the Syrian Family Planning Association, which focused on two axes: the first on the concept of climate change and ways to adapt to and mitigate it, and the second on ways to reduce food waste, in parallel with a training workshop on recycling with the Association, in addition to organizing a drawing workshop on recycled cloth bags under the supervision of Ms. Nisreen Al-Hussein within her studio.
The team, which relies for its funding solely on the volunteers who have joined it, as Makarem indicated, seeks during the coming period to establish an environmental club for children in cooperation with the Al-Jalaa Neighborhood Committee in the city of As-Suwayda. This will include awareness sessions on ways to preserve the environment and reduce the impact of climate change, manual workshops based on recycling to instill this culture, as well as training workshops on agriculture as a means to enhance children's sense of responsibility towards the environment.
