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October 19, 2021— Highlighting the importance of climate education, the Department of Education (DepEd) emphasized the international call for global climate justice to address the adverse effects it entails on children in a youth webinar held last September 24.

DepEd, through the Bureau of Learner Support Services- Youth Formation Division (BLSS-YFD), teamed up with Save the Children to conduct a webinar on Global Climate Strike: Capacity Building on Climate Change and its Effect on Children’s Welfare.

“The urgency of protecting the environment has become much more evident. We have been surviving on a yearly basis; floods, earthquakes, storms have led to the destruction of our infrastructure, of buildings, and of course, the loss of lives,” Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones said.

The webinar discussed the direct effects of climate change on children’s welfare and how the climate change movements can urge learners to be part of the solution. It also highlighted the big part of educational institutions to be a platform and breeding ground for young leaders.

“Napapanahon itong ating global strike and the call for climate justice happening around the globe. Ito ay ating ginagawa sapagkat muli nating ini-hihighlight ang participation ng education sector in climate change education and motivation,” BLSS Director Lope B. Santos III said.

Carrying the slogan #UprootTheSystem, the Global Climate Strike was organized by Fridays for Future, headed by an 18-year-old Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg. This youth-led movement began in 2018 and has 15 million participants in over 216 countries worldwide presently.

“Makakalikasan, this is one of the Department’s core values, recognizing the need to infiltrate the mind of the learners and even the teachers, and the personnel of the Department. The importance of taking care of the planet and its resources. At the very core of our existence, we are all entwined by the very fabric of our humanity. The source of light that sustains our very existence, the earth, and ating tahanan,” BLSS-YFD Chief Adolf Aguilar shared.

“Through a unified action, you can slowly start to mitigate the effects that climate change brings to all of us especially to our children,” he added.

Save the Children also delved on the adverse effects of climate change like hunger, loss of properties due to natural calamities, increase in death and illness, disruption and lack of access to necessities like clean water, and the absence of child rights.

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