World Environment Day 2005: a creative and devoted affair!

This year’s World Environment Day (WED) activities were marked by a vast variety of lively, vibrant and artistic events on the UN compound and at schools, in local communities, at and near roundabouts, at cultural institutions, universities and in the Karura and Aberdares Forest, just to name a few. As announced in the June issue of Tidbits the Arts for the Environment approach to WED came to another peak this year: painted Metro Shuttle buses were driving around the city with colourful messages on this year’s WED theme artistically interpreted by Kenyan painters and produced during a busy weekend at the GoDown Arts Centre. Kuona Trust Artists painted 5 Metro Shuttles thanks to the generous support of Kenya Bus Company and Crown Berger Paints who, for the second year in a row, have offered buses and donated enough paints for the creative visualisation of this year’s WED message: Green cities! Look out for them! Also at the always lively Godown Arts Centre in the industrial area the artist Omega Ludenyi and his young helpers from Mathare as well as UNEP interns spent many days and nights to weld an impressive metal sculpture representing the world which was placed at the Muthaiga Roundabout and filled with hundreds of plastic balls. For this purpose, youth and children’s groups from Mathare and Kibera slums collected plastic garbage weeks in advance. This activity was inspired by UNEP’s children’s book “ Theo and the Giant plastic ball”. You can’t miss the plastic globe as well as the beautiful metal tree on your way out of town! In the early morning of Friday, 3rd of June – the actual celebration day on the UN-compound – all UN staff had the opportunity to participate in a challenging environmental rally to start off WED celebrations. A highly demanding job for brain and feet, but all participants visibly enjoyed the physical and mental c hallenge. They learned a lot about facts and figures of energy consumption and waste management on the compound and worldwide. Later that day, UN staff, sponsors, guests and artists were welcomed at the opening of an eye-catching arts exhibition “Flirting with Nature”, which is currently adorning the still empty spaces of the Recreation Centre. The exhibition is open for public until the end of June.All art is on sale! Opening hours to public? A huge cake, kindly donated by Intercontinental was shared among all guests and the top raffle prizes of the WED raffle were drawn. Flights to Europe and Egypt were among the most exiting ones to win. But many more prizes made the day!! World Environment Day is very much alive: staff children were asked to draw their city: green or grey. A beautiful and impressive collection of children’s paintings was exhibited in the main lobby during WED week, complemented by the voices and commitments of UNEP staff towards environmental conservation. It is worth reading: you might learn something new and also may want to use some ideas in your daily life, like composting your organic waste, saving water and energy in your home and at work. World Environment Day is a fun day and it is important to celebrate and spread the message, but one also has to make it happen. Interested and dedicated staff members and interns from all divisions form the World Environment Day committee. Many months ahead of the actual day they spend a lot of their free time during evenings and weekends to prepare the different events, fundraise, organise, persuade and get donations for the raffle tickets! And without the creativity and enormous help of our interns, like Melina, Adriaan, Michael, George and Henrike as well as many others, World Environment Day 2005 would not have been the same! They tirelessly visited local primary schools in Nairobi to read “Theo and the Giant Plastic ball” to school children, helped to build the Globe by spending long nights welding the sculpture, driving all helpers back to their homes and did a great job in advertising WED to all UN staff on the same day! Asante sana- many many thanks to all those helping hands!!