HILLCREST SECONDARY SCHOOL Final HILLCREST MAG 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