A Christian conservation society has initiated programmes to spread ocean climate literacy to schools and churches in efforts to conserve marine ecosystems in Kilifi County.

Full Gospel Churches of Kenya said yesterday that it has trained teachers and pastors to spearhead the campaign supported by UNESCO, IDA International and Arocha Kenya.  

Ms Kezia Kimeu from the Evangelical Alliance of Kenya said the campaign will help to reduce pollution along the coast and other water catchment areas across the country.

She said the alliance has more than 73,000 churches, and the conservationists seek to tap the manpower to spread education on the need to conserve the environment. 

“I have gained knowledge on ocean literacy, and my greatest takeaway from the workshop is the interconnectedness of our actions, in the upstream, and ocean or blue economy," she said.

Ms Marceline Mkambe, a teacher from Watamu in Kilifi County, said that she had scant information about ocean literacy and the blue economy before the workshop and that she was now able to impart the knowledge to learners.

“Before the workshop, I had a basic knowledge of ocean literacy, and I didn’t know much about it, but after the training, I have learnt a lot of things because I knew we were polluting the environment by throwing waste, but I didn’t know that throwing even the smallest plastic waste in the ocean had a huge effect on marine life,” she said. 

The FIDA International regional programmes manager for East Africa, Paula Konttinen, said that they were engaging the schools and churches since they command a huge population which when enlightened, can help in reducing ocean pollution in the area.

“We’ve organised this workshop in collaboration with UNESCO because we want to be the change on matters concerning marine conservation and ocean literacy, and we work here in Magarini Sub County with schools and also our partner, the Full Gospel Churches of Kenya, and we believe all these institutions can be great influencers of communities to conserve their environment,” she said. 

Speaking at a Malindi hotel during a two-day marine conservation and ocean stewardship programme, she added that the training will go all the way to the grassroots level until the society accepts that they can utilise ocean resources to their benefit without necessarily polluting it.

“We are looking forward to the people that are here becoming the change agents in terms of sensitising their communities and influencing the children in schools, and we believe in changing mindsets when children are still young because we know as they grow with that literacy, they will also become change agents in their communities, and faith leaders are influencers who we believe will change the mindset of their congregants,” she said.

John Ngatia from the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO said that ocean pollution coupled with climate change was a threat to the livelihood of Kenyans, especially those residing along the coast and depending on it for survival. 

“Ocean pollution is an issue that is more observable and prevalent when you walk along the coastline of Kenya, and there’s a lot of pollution that is depicted by lots of plastic loading and dumping along the coastline,” he said.

He opined that engaging learners and the church congregation was a sure and quick way of imparting ocean literacy information to the general public, boosting conservation efforts.

“There’s a lot of willingness of schools to teach learners about ocean-related issues and ocean literacy, but then there is no access to materials and teaching aids to facilitate this, and that is where we’ve come in to expose the teachers' toolkits,” he said.

Stanley Baya from Arocha Kenya said that the country was currently facing a crisis, especially in areas along the Kenyan coastline where fishing is the main activity, with reduced or extinct fish species forcing residents in those areas to start consuming fish species that were no longer being consumed.

“We are facing a crisis, actually, at the moment, and if you talk to fishermen, they will tell you how it was many years ago and the amount of fish they used to catch compared to now, when it has reached crisis level because they used to get so much fish, but currently the ocean has reached crisis level,” he said.

“These community leaders, who include teachers and pastors, will now go to their respective areas of work, schools and churches to train and encourage their learners and their faithful to look after God’s creation,” Baya added. By Nehemiah Okwembah, The Standard