Students pledge to keep environment clean, prevent plastic pollution

(MissionNewswire) The Don Bosco School, located in Chhinchu, Nepal, participated in a demonstration against air and plastic pollution organized by the Chhinchu municipal office. The young students carried a sign, shouted slogans and walked the half-kilometer distance in the heat, pledging to keep the environment clean and prevent plastic pollution.

The students’ participation was organized by the Don Bosco Center in Chhinchu and hosted by the local administrative office of the Bheriganga municipality. Members of the administrative office, members of the area committee, the local primary school, and a host of prominent citizens and elders participated in the event, sending a strong message about the urgent need to act now to preserve nature.

A Salesian noted, “This was a wonderful event for these young students. It gave them an opportunity to learn more about how pollution impacts the environment while understanding the importance of our collective environment impact. The young students, the first group of kindergarten students at the school, also participated in the planting of trees as part of the day’s program.”

The Don Bosco Center in Chhinchu has been providing education, pastoral care and social development since it opened in 2021. The center was started to provide support for people living in the sparsely populated region where few services are available. At the center, Salesians offer classes for nearly 180 students from nursery school through technical and vocational training. Many youth who finish skills training leave the area for work or further education in India.

Salesian missionaries arrived in Nepal in the 1890s and started a secondary school in Siddhipur, a village in the Lalitpur district. Today there are 20 secondary schools and nine Salesian centers in the central-eastern and far-western regions of the country. Salesians provide education and social development programs to aid poor youth and their families.

Nepal is among the least developed countries in the world, with about one-quarter of its population living below the poverty line. Salesian missionaries are still hard at work with long-term reconstruction efforts after a devastating 7.8 earthquake struck Nepal on April 25, 2015, with a second striking on May 12, 2015.

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Sources:

ANS Photo (usage permissions and guidelines must be requested from ANS)

ANS – Nepal – Don Bosco School children also participated in the demonstration against air and plastic pollution

Salesian Missions – Nepal

World Bank – Nepal