Romeo Ocfemia
Written by - Akid Najib
This article falls under the 13th, 14th & 15th Sustainable Development Goal - Climate Action, Life Below Water and Life On Land
As an individual with remarkable passion for the environment, Romeo Ocfemia, a graduate of GEMS American academy has been involved in numerous activities to present this. His most successful involvement in contributing to the SDGs is being a part of his school’s eco club. Amongst his membership there, his contributions include: being president of the GAAQ debate society, member of the newspaper club and member of the Qatar ploggers.
Why is it really important to care for the environment?
“When it comes to the environment, it does a lot for us but we don’t do much back. It’s us who would suffer if anything goes wrong”
Following his care for the environment, Romeo was a key member in his eco club which massively succeeded in various projects. The eco club he and his team ran were under the SDGs 13, 14 and 15 (Climate Action, Life Below Water and Life On Land). The club aimed to educate students about preserving the environment and saving our Earth despite limited capabilities. The club started small however with the help of funding, the club was able to conduct SDG involvement including: providing sustainable living in Africa and settling wells in rural Africa.
Funding heavily assisted the team in achieving the SDG involvement yet the hardest challenge the club faced was that there was still not enough funds. Fortunately, brainstorming resulted in ideas like plant sales, fundraisers, smoothie sales, which in the long term gave the club the funding they needed to continue reaching their goals. As a result, this helped in achieving goals such as: Creation of the greenhouse with its own ecosystem and wildlife, creation of their own aquaponic system, creation of their own pond, partnering with elite paper recycling.
→ The greenhouse massively increased the biodiversity in the school.
→ The aquaponics system allowed fish waste to be used for growing plants and vegetables, an efficient and sustainable system.
→ The pond allowed kids to learn how to properly take care of the wildlife underwater.
→ The elite paper recycling saves tons of paper and cardboard thus avoiding waste and pollution.
With all these goals achieved, Romeo was asked whether there was an end goal for the eco club.
“When it comes to problems, it never ends. One problem is solved, another rises.”
He also stated,
“The main never ending goal is to keep the knowledge alive and active as generations pass.”
With the help of the school, the club is able to recruit younger students in order to inspire and bring awareness upon younger ages to care for the environment. The club has successfully been able to ingrain into young minds that
“these goals the project has established are incredibly crucial to the Earth.”
Aside from being a part of the eco club, Romeo consistently contributes to achieving the SDGs. He is the president of his GAAQ debate society in which he and his team tackle many issues regarding politics and the environment. Furthermore, the debate society strives to ensure people are aware of key matters that must be resolved, especially those which are environmental. Romeo Ocfemia is also a member of the newspaper club which produces articles containing environmental knowledge helping to distribute information people should be more aware of. In addition, he is also a member of the Qatar ploggers where he would weekly go to public areas (like beaches) with his team to pick up garbage lying around.
What advice do you have for people?
“I advise everybody to learn and help the environment because it's where we live”
He highly recommends everybody to take action and do as much as they could to try and change for the better. He also encourages people to learn as much about this issue and what is at stake as he states
“For those who are aware, there isn’t any excuse to do nothing because it’s not only me who’ll suffer. Everyone would, including the future generations.”
Do you believe humanity can mend the damages done?
“The environment we have now isn’t great. Although from time to time there are events that restore my faith in humanity, like the hole in the ozone layer is slowly healing showing the environment can and will heal if we step up”
There are many ways to help and start a sustainable life. Why not now?