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BirdLife Malta and Bank of Valletta held an event at Savio College yesterday, for heads of school, teachers and students of primary schools in Malta and Gozo during which the Dinja Wahda Environmental Programme for 2007/2008 was launched.

Dinja Wahda (One World) is BirdLife’s environmental education programme and has been running since 1994. Minster for Rural Affairs and the Environment George Pullicino presided over the event. Mr Igino Xuereb, Chief Officer Operations at Bank of Valletta, and Desireé Falzon, BirdLife’s Chairperson and Education Committee Coordinator, were present for the event.

“Dinja Wahda aims to provide our students with a firm grounding in environmental awareness, while adopting an innovative and entertaining approach. In this manner, children are eager to learn more about our environment and how they can protect and enhance it, in turn becoming staunch supporters of green initiatives. This is crucial because in this manner, not only do children become green ambassadors for a future world, but they in turn educate their own families and friends, thus bettering the world we live in from the start,” said Desireé Falzon. “The new Dinja Wahda Action Guide which complements the programme is more exciting and colourful than ever, with proposed activities having increased from 18 to 30 from the previous edition. In addition, Dinja Wahda will now be an annual feature of school extra-curricular activities. This is also thanks to the Bank of Valletta which has become our Education Partner on this project,” Ms Falzon concluded.

Thanking Ms Falzon, Mr Igino Xuereb said that Bank of Valletta was delighted to be supporting BirdLife Malta, as its Education Partner, in the Dinja Wahda project. “Our sponsorship consolidates BOV’s involvement in Community Initiatives of an educational and environmental nature,” said Mr. Xuereb. “We are particularly proud that thanks to our support, the ‘Dinja Wahda’ programme becomes an annual feature among schools’ extra-curricular activities, reaching an even larger number of schoolchildren,” he added. Whilst wishing BirdLife every success on the implementation of this programme, Mr Xuereb emphasised BOV’s commitment to take an active role in the management and administration of this project. He concluded his intervention by referring to the Bank’s Community Programme, by means of which, the Bank invested Lm600,000 in the community over the past two years under various pillars including the environment and education.

During the launch, Jacqueline Licari, a student from Guzeppi Agius Paola Primary B School, who participated in Dinja Wahda in the past talked about her experience. She spoke about the various environmentally friendly initiatives she has carried out with the school, from waste separation, to the construction of bird tables, cloth shopping bags, and a solar panel experiment. Most importantly, Jacqueline explained that she then continues these actions and others, such as energy-saving measures, at home with her family.

Dinja Wahda Schools Coordinator Albert Attard is distributing the Action Guide to all primary schools in Malta and Gozo. Having been enhanced, the Action Guide will be even more effective by providing further ideas that teachers can work upon with their class. All relevant teaching information is provided in the Action Guide as well as on BirdLife’s website in order to facilitate the teachers even further.

Teachers are free to choose which Dinja Wahda activities to do with their class. Each activity carries points according to the level of commitment required. Mr Attard will continue to visit the schools throughout the academic year to guide teachers and keep a record of their progress. At the end of the scholastic year a Gold, Silver or Bronze award is presented to the participating schools, according to level of merit. Interested schools should contact Mr Albert Attard for more information by writing to albert.attard@birdlifemalta.org or phoning 21347644/5.