Youth for Eco-Justice: Njideka Jacinta Onwunyi
November 5, 2011 in Church, Ecological Justice, Ecumenism, Youth participation
The World Council of Churches and the Lutheran World Federation co-organize Youth for Eco-Justice, starting parallel to the UN Climate Change Summit in Durban, South Africa, at the end of November. In a series of blog posts, the participants are introducing themselves.
Name: Njideka Jacinta Onwunyi
Age: 26
Function: Postgraduate student of Environmental Management, WASH project Officer (Volunteer) at Bread of Life Development Foundation
Country of origin: Nigeria
Church of origin: Roman Catholic Church (O.L.F, Lagos, Nigeria)
What is really important for your life?
Service in God’s kingdom and to humanity, devotion to family, integrity, and the simple things life has to offer.
What are your wishes for the neegotiations on climate change in Durban?
It is my desire that world leaders work towards ensuring that environmental justice, along with economic equity and environmental protection would be a guiding principle in the development of policies and indicators to combat climate change and environmental degradation.
What would you like to do so that your church/country becomes more environmentally just?
- Work together with my community church authorities towards imbibing an environmental outlook in all its activities by focusing primarily on environmental education in order to ensure that youths within my community are properly educated on climate change and its effect on our environment and also in making certain behavioural changes and choices toward responsible stewardship of our God given resources in this regard.
- Create a sustainable platform for mobilizing young Nigerians towards ecojustice advocacy with the use of social media where the message of sustainable development will be constantly propagated as an important aspect of environmental protection and management and also liaise with other civil societies working towards this regard in order to achieve the goal of implementation of the right to water in my country, ecojustice and also advocate for policy and legislation changes towards ensuring the preservation of our ground and surface water from pollution.