Climate Change: Medical students want volunteer groups for rural communities

MEDICAL students in Nigeria have called for the engagement of young medical practitioners to volunteer in rural communities' on climate change awareness creation, the effects of global warming and green house effect.

The call was contained in a communiqué issued at the end of the summit tagged 'Climate Change; A Global Menace That Can Be Halted Locally; organized by the Nigerian Medical Student Association in Abuja.

A statement from the association signed by Ubong Anyang, National Director, and Etuk Eno-Abasi Etim, National Secretary, said the summit which held between September 6-7, was organised with support from NESREA, NIMET, WEP, ICEED & CEASEI.

The statement said global warming and green houses could lead to diseases such as cancer, malaria etc. and said government should collaborate with NGOs, CSOs, youths and private sectors, build capacity on how to dump refuse or dispose them properly, planting cover crops and using social media as a tool to reaching out and creating awareness.

The federal government should, according to the communiqué, enact sustainable policies on environment and bring justice to law breakers, implement projects, create penalties for law breakers, and also provide funds to implement these policies.

The  communiqué also said that the volunteers can visit communities and create awareness, teaching them about personal hygiene and how to best keep their environment clean and enlighten them about how the use of woods for cooking affects the environment.

The Nigerian Medical Students' Association (NiMSA) is the umbrella body of all Medical Students' (over 60, 000) in the thirty-eight Colleges of Medicine across all the states of the Federation and FCT, the parent body being the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA).

The Standing Committee on Environment and Population Activities (SCOEPA) is the arm of the association saddled with the arduous task of following the environmental trend as well as the population of the nation.  

Presentations were given by NIMET, NESREA, ICEED & FBI
Read Final Report and Pictures of the event. 

Group Photograph of Participants

By Nasir Imam

Source: DAILY TRUST.