HILLCREST SECONDARY SCHOOL 01/2017 | Page 46

ENVIRONMENT We are LEAP! And we’ve been around for a while now but we just want to tell you a bit more about ourselves. If you don’t know any LEAP members personally, I’m sure you’ve got a few questions, so we’ll try our best to answer them. of the Future What is LEAP? LEAP is a Hillcrest student initiative- it stands for Leaders for Environmental Awareness and Protection and we are the Environmental Club here at Hillcrest. All of our projects and programmes are conceived, planned and executed entirely by students so if you are looking for a space where your ideas can become reality, this is the place for you. What do you do? (Do you even do anything?) We raise money for environmental causes as well as undertake several projects by ourselves. These past two terms we have raised money to plant 1,000 trees in a reforestation campaign at Mount Kenya Forest; launched a clean-up initiative at the Arboretum River that runs each Green Week Friday during co-curricular (and is open to all students; implemented a recycling programme at Hillcrest (meaning that almost all of Hillcrest’s waste will be recycled from now on); planted trees around campus and helped clean up the Mathare Hospital 46 compound. Why should I even care about the environment? If you care about living it’s probably a smart idea to start caring about the trees that help you breathe and the environment that gives you perfect conditions to live. You can start by making small changes. Use less water when you shower, recycle your waste, make your own compost, reuse paper, be kind to your animals, ride your bike, eat less meat, join this club. Then you can move on to the bigger stuff. Become vocal about poaching and wildlife destruction; get your whole family/community to start recycling; campaign to reduce waste in your school; help clean a river; come up with an initiative for LEAP and become its project leader; see your ideas become reality; start another project; educate others; get your friends involved; help the less privileged become more environmentally conscious; volunteer in rural education programmes; email politicians; campaign for environmentally- friendly bills to get passed in 2017 | Hillcrest Magazine