The Dinja Waħda programme once again managed to connect younger generations to the environment, despite the difficult circumstances faced in the past year.
Organised by BirdLife Malta in collaboration with the Directorate for Learning and Assessment Programmes, and supported by Bank of Valletta, the Dinja Waħda environmental education programme strives to connect kindergarten, primary and secondary students to nature.
“We must admit that COVID-19 impacted our usual plans as hosting the usual outdoor visits became a lot more challenging, at a moment even impossible due to safety regulations,” said Mark Sultana, chief executive officer at BirdLife Malta.
This year, 88 schools will receive an award from the various categories of the programme.
“While the situation was complicated, it was very encouraging to see that schools, teachers and the children themselves were still enthusiastic about their involvement in the programme.”
Although the pandemic did not permit the usual school visits to BirdLife’s outdoor education initiatives, Dinja Waħda managed to engage with as many students as possible in a more adaptive manner. During the past scholastic year, a total of 1,160 online sessions were given to around 126 schools. This all amounts to an approximate number of 10,000 students. Some of these sessions were also held from BirdLife’s nature reserves.
The bank has now been supporting the Dinja Waħda programme for over 10 years and has once again extended its agreement with BirdLife for the upcoming scholastic year
BirdLife Malta’s Dinja Waħda initiative forms part of the eNGO’s commitment to protect wildlife and its habitats through outdoor activities for schoolchildren both in school grounds and through educational visits to Malta’s nature reserves to help them connect with nature. The programme has been running for more than 20 years.
“Our collaboration with BirdLife is perfectly in line with our ESG ambitions of fulfilling sustainable development goals such as quality education, life on land and climate action,” said Charles Azzopardi, head of CSR and communication at Bank of Valletta.
The bank has now been supporting the Dinja Waħda programme for over 10 years and has once again extended its agreement with BirdLife for the upcoming scholastic year.
“In the midst of a pandemic, the Dinja Waħda programme managed to reach around 10,000 students. This continues to show that this programme serves as a good way to empower today’s children to take a lead in safeguarding nature for tomorrow.”
Sultana thanked Bank of Valletta for pledging its support to the Dinja Waħda programme for the upcoming scholastic year and looked forward to reaching even higher levels of engagement with students from even more schools.
For more information about the Dinja Waħda programme, visit https://birdlifemalta.org/environmental-education/schools/.