Going for a walk, sitting on a bench, feeding the ducks... Over the past year being in nature has never been more import for our mental health.
This Earth Day we want to remind you to take a second to enjoy the world around you. Here's 6 pictures that remind us just how beautiful our planet is and the stories behind them. 🌍
1. Making a splash in the community
Bolo* by Charlie Forgham-Bailey / Save the Children
Bolo, 19, lives in Madagascar and is part of the youth association in his community where he learns life skills and helps improve the wider community through education and building projects.
He has his own small vanilla plantation and loves to sing, dance and compose songs in his spare time, with hopes of becoming a famous singer!
"Wherever I go, I always sing. When I go to the river, I sing. When I go to the forest, I sing. When I wash the cooking pots, I sing. When I go to bed, I sing. I sing at night, in the afternoon...every day I sing.”
2. Two birds, one boy
Peter* by Louis Leeson / Save The Children
Peter is a gentle, smiling 14-year-old boy who loves school, especially maths, drama and drawing. But just a year go, Peter was living as a child soldier with an armed group in South Sudan.
“They gave us weapons for shooting,” he says. “They were teaching us skills – how to hide ourselves or run.”
After managing to escape, he fled to Uganda where he rejoined school and adopted some interesting pets. He raises baby pigeons and has even built a hut for them from scratch.
3. Sunrise with your bestfriend
Jasmin and Shumi by Tom Merilion / Save The Children
Jasmin had to drop out of school when she was young, as her family weren't able to afford it. But that’s just made her more determined to support other girls in her community.
As part of our UK aid funded Suchana programme, Jasmin has become a peer leader, where she inpires girls and makes it possible for them to go to school so they can shape their own future.
She even stepped in to stop her friend, Shumi, leaving school and getting married to a man she didn't know.
"We have the opportunity to educate older people in the community," says Jasmin. "We make them aware of the negatives of early marriage. Like with Shumi’s parents.”
4. In the garden
Uche* by Lewis Khan / Save the Children
Uche was proud to show his mum, IJ*, the community garden behind his school. It's an place where he's happy and he enjoys looking at the different flowers with his mum.
IJ was finding parenting hard without a support network, but got lucky when she met a friendly mum at a children's centre. It gave her the confidence to join children's services and parenting courses and access more support in her community. Now, she says, she's more relaxed.
“If I say, ‘Oh I'm so shy...’ I won't know the best courses to enrol my children in. I won't know the playgroups to go to.
"I had to consciously... just come out and just say hello..."
5. Is there something on my head?
Rudi by Jonathan Hyams / Save the Children
Rudi is nine and lives with his family – his mother Hermelinda, father Bernardino, brother Orlando, 18, and one of his three sisters, Gladi, 12 – in a Mayan community village in Yucatan state, Mexico.
In August 2015, a flood swept away the family’s crops and killed almost all their animals – leaving them struggling to find enough to eat.
As part of its health and nutrition programme in the area, Save the Children, has helped Rudi’s family build a garden in which to grow fruit and vegetables, ensuring they get a diverse and healthy diet.
Now they grow chilli, lettuce, tomatoes, mint, chaya, onion, radish, coriander, tamarind, plums, pineapple, mango, bananas and papayas. Their lush garden now thrives with local birds.
6. learning under the tree
Education in rural Uganda by Andrew Pacutho / Save the Children
A shortage of classrooms and supplies means many children in rural Uganda study outside under trees.
Save the Children supports non-formal schools in rural parts of Uganda by constructing new classrooms and teachers' accommodation and training and helping parents and communities engage in learning and supporting the school.
More than 11,000 children have benefited from this programme, and literacy levels among the children have increased by 47 percent.
Against the backdrop of a deepening climate emergency, children are facing some of the biggest crises for generations. That’s why the G7 summit and the global climate conference couldn’t come at a more important time.
We have a beautiful planet. Lets protect it together.
Learn more about the actions we’re calling on the Government to take
Join the #WaveofHope and show the government you care.
*Names changed to protect identities
