Resource 5: Charles Gahire

 Teacher resource for planning or adapting to use with pupils

Charles Gahire of REASON

After the 1994 genocide, a Rwandan environmental campaigner, Charles Gahire, started an organisation called REASON. The organisation was unique at that time, when most organisations were being formed to provide humanitarian assistance. At that time the environment was not a priority. Trees in particular were being cut down countrywide for building shelter and providing fuel wood. There was a lot of waste and litter throughout the country, resulting from distribution and supply of relief food, water and medicine from international NGOs and the government. Wildlife in the country was not spared either.

REASON was started with the vision of environmental concerns shaping daily thinking and actions at work, at home, in recreation, and in other activities. Its mission was to take a lead in fostering environmental education and public awareness, advocacy and sensitisation among the people of Rwanda. It had the following specific objectives:

1. To impart knowledge to the youth and community regarding issues of the environment.
2. To create environmental awareness among all stakeholders through changes in attitude and belief so as to bring issues of environment closer to humankind.
3. To encourage the adoption of skilled knowledge through hands-on projects in environmental programmes.

Since its inception, REASON has been able to accomplish the following towards the protection of the environment.

• Afforestation and tree-planting campaigns in various parts of Rwanda.
• Soil erosion and deforestation campaigns.
• Campaigned against the importation and use of non-biodegradable materials like plastics in the country.
• Initiated the ‘Keep Kigali City Clean and Green’ campaign.
• Campaigned against the use of asbestos as a roofing material as it was scientifically proven to be carcinogenic.

REASON is convinced that prevention of harmful effects is less costly than their subsequent correction. For this reason, environmental considerations are entertained at all levels of planning in order to ensure that the pattern and style of development is consistent with a healthy environment, which is essential to the well-being of present and future generations.

Mary Ojerinde

In Nigeria, Mary Ojerinde, the daughter of a pastoral farmer who studied agriculture, noticed the impact of overgrazing in her village and the adjoining villages and had made up her mind to do something about it in her adult life. This life ambition of hers made her form a group, The Green Revolution Movement.

The aim of the group is to protect the environment from desert encroachment in the northern part of Nigeria. The group, consisting of many professionals, community leaders and local farmers interested in protecting the environment, encouraged the planting of trees and creation of grazing land for the Fulani herdsmen in specific areas in the villages. The group also held regular counselling sessions with the farmers on land use management and other environmentally friendly methods of rearing animals with increased productivity.

This made Mary Ojerinde a heroine among her colleagues in the Institute of Agricultural Research, where she works, and in the surrounding villages.

In order to promote positive attitudes towards environmental protection, the group visited a number of schools and encouraged them to set up Environmental Protection Clubs that focus on why it is important to look after the land and how to look after the land better. The activities to engage in, as suggested by Mary Ojerinde, include cleaning the school environment of litter and waste, creating drainage and cleaning blocked drainage in nearby villages, and planting flowers and trees, particularly fruit-bearing ones like mangoes, guavas and oranges, in particular places on the school compound. The movement engages in awareness campaigns on the dangers of overgrazing and illegal felling of trees. All these activities were built into a work plan on a large poster with datelines that could be displayed on the class walls.

The local government learned about the activities of the group and the chairman had decided to fund all the educational aspects of the group’s campaign. Mary Ojerinde had also been requested to launch the group in other parts of the State.