Pictured in front row with graduates are Save The Bays chairman, and educator Joseph Darville (far left), and CEO Vanessa Haley-Benjamin, M.Sc. Lead facilitator Rashema Ingraham is pictured 2nd row, far right.
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On the
eve of the opening of the largest gathering ever assembled for an
environmental conference, the Paris conference on climate change, 16
Bahamians joined the ranks of those
equipped to teach leadership and the environment. They are the
graduates of this year’s Youth Environment Ambassadors (YEA) training, a
cooperative effort between the growing local environmental movement
Save The Bays
and the internationally acclaimed Center for Creative Leadership,
Financial Times Top Five Worldwide in Executive Education. The training
sessions were made possible in part by a grant from RBC to Save The
Bays.
“These are critical times in the life of this nation and its people,
especially the young,” said Save The Bays Chairman Joseph Darville. “It
is based upon that realization that
we have developed this model that allows us to work with
internationally renowned experts instilling in these very special young
people knowledge about critical ecosystems and the kind of personal
development that will pave the way for them to serve in leadership
roles going forward.”
The newly-minted graduates who underwent intensive leadership skills
training will not have to wait long to test their strengths.
From mid-January to May, they will lead up to 40 junior high school
students in Grand Bahama on semi-monthly environmental education
sessions delving into sensitive and sometimes threatened ecosystems. The
program, which includes immersion in six ecosystems,
moves from the classroom to the field and has led students in past
years to places as diverse as the expected like coral reefs to the
unexpected, including the Grand Bahama Power Company and the Grand
Bahama Shipyard to better understand the industrial pressures
on fragile environments and what measures are being implemented to
mitigate against those pressures.
Save The Bays chairman Joseph Darville congratulates Natasha Turnquest for earning certification as a facilitator in the popular Youth Environment Ambassadors program that combines environmental experiences in six ecosystems with leadership skills development. Turnquest was one of 16 who graduated following an intensive course in Grand Bahama.
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This will be the third session of the YEA program operated by Save The
Bays. The first session was so popular that nearly twice as many
students ages 12-14 showed up to register as the program could handle.
Save The Bays is hoping to extend YEA to Nassau and
at least two Family Islands in the coming years.
“As awareness of the importance of the environment builds and becomes a
part of the national conversation in a country so vulnerable to climate
change and other influences that can change our way of living and
threaten our very survival, I believe one of the
most valuable roles Save The Bays can play is to enable the training of
persons who will become dynamic leadership stewards for our future.”
Since its launch in April 2013, Save The Bays has grown with its
Facebook page attracting nearly 9,000 friends and fans and a petition to
government urging comprehensive environmental legislation and an end to
unregulated development gaining close to 5,000
signatures. Its voice in bringing attention to matters like oil
pollution in Clifton Bay has rung out in the highest offices with
Minister of the Environment Kenred Dorsett, now a delegate at the Paris
conference, last week decrying the fuel he said was leaking
daily from BEC into Clifton Bay.
