I am Enoch, I am 13 years old and I am in Year 9 at the Lycée Municipal Somone Ehivet in Yopougon.
I live in the largest commune in Ivory Coast and it's called Yopougon.
My home village is called Kouassikoussikro. It is located in the centre of Ivory Coast in the department of Bocanda which is a small town. In my village, my grandparents have been farming for several centuries.
Yam, plantain and cassava are the main crops used to make the main dishes such as foutou, attiéké and many others.
For a long time, my weekends, my free time, my holidays were only animated by the life in the Church and stays in the village to better know my grandparents and the life of the villagers.
Since November 2018, I met the 2 members of the NGO Empreinte Verte & Solidarité (EVS). After some investigations I realised that they were friends of my mum and without hesitation I wanted to know more about what they did. From their explanations came the need in me to bring something more to the people, especially as I saw that the living environment in my village was very often degraded. As I wanted to carry out positive actions in the long term to keep our environment healthy, I did everything I could to become part of their team.
Since then, we have carried out some actions together among the population to raise awareness and above all to bring everyone, children like me and adults, to change the bad behaviours that pollute or degrade the environment.
I made a video with some friends in which we showed the actions carried out by our elders on a project called the Projet d’Assainissement Total d’Azito (PATA).
In this video, we highlighted both the progress made in environmental preservation and the major challenges still that remain in terms of sanitation and hygiene.
In a few months, in the field activities are planned during which my other comrades from the NGO EVSand Iwill sensitise hundreds of people on eco-actions and especially on the dangers of open defecation and several other subjects. We will take action in villages, schools and markets in rural areas and in disadvantaged neighbourhoods of big cities.
I am now more than passionate and motivated to make a difference in achieving the UN's Goals to Transform Our World. The subjects I like to speak out on the most are issues related to sanitation, hygiene, water, waste management and the fight against open defecation.
My dream today is that all children in Ivory Coast and throughout the world live and grow up in a healthy and friendly environment without pollution and without degradation of the living environment of humans and animals