05 June 2009

Beijing, China: On World Environment Day, 5 June, visitors to the National Aquatics Centre were struck by the enthusiasm of a group of university students advocating environmental protection at two Olympic city booths.

The students were Qinghua University volunteers celebrating World Environment Day by donating their energy and dedication to carrying out environmental awareness activities. They were working under a campaign led by UNV and the Beijing Volunteer Federation.

The campaign, focused on promoting volunteers as protagonists in the effort against Climate Change, will continue beyond World Environment Day in subsequent rounds of volunteer-driven activities.

Responding to the 2009 World Environment Day’s call ‘Your planet needs you: unite to combat climate change’ and with the purpose of raising environmental awareness through the action of volunteers, UNDP and UNV and various local organizations united their strength to launch a series of activities as part of the ‘Strengthening Volunteerism for Development through the 2008 Beijing Olympics’ project.

The participating volunteers were all students from Qinghua University, Minzu University of China, Capital Normal University and the Institute of International Relations.

In late May, 33 students from the four universities were trained by facilitators from the international NGO the Jane Goodall Institute in China. Under the NGO’s ‘Roots&Shoots’ programme, during two intensive afternoon classes the volunteers were engaged in lively games and discussions.

The contents included climate change knowledge and methods on how to develop a participatory lesson for younger students. The students were required to independently search for information and compose a lesson that they had the chance to practice with the other volunteers on the second day of training.

After that, the volunteers put their skills to the test presenting their lessons to a total of 21 classes in two migrant children’s schools and a high school in Beijing.

Finally, on World Environment Day, the volunteers organized environmental advocacy activities in their university campuses and in two Olympic city booths near the National Aquatics Centre, also known as ‘the Water Cube’, to share pictures and experiences from the lessons in schools and raise general public awareness on climate change.

“It was a very special experience,” said says Xie Chao, a volunteer from the Institute of International Relations. “I had participated in environmental awareness activities before, but it was mostly about distributing information material. This time, we designed our own lesson and games for the younger students, who, thanks to the interactive approach, easily absorbed the newly acquired knowledge”

The project ‘Strengthening Volunteerism for Development through the 2008 Beijing Olympics’ was launched in July 2007 as a partnership between the China International Center for Economic and Technical Exchanges (CICETE), the Beijing Youth League (BYL), the Beijing Volunteer Federation (BVF), UNDP and UNV.

The objective is to build on the momentum of the Beijing Olympics to promote volunteerism as an effective means towards development. One of the main components of the project is advocating a more environmentally sustainable lifestyle by every individual.