World environment day 2010
Since its establishment by the UN General Assembly in the early seventies, World Environment Day is hosted every year on the 5th June by a different city and focuses on a specific theme. According to the UN Secretary-general, this year’s World Environment Day theme “Your planet needs you” is meant to inspire all of us to do our part in order to sustain the transition to a new era of greener and cleaner development.
Challenges Worldwide works alongside a number of partner organisations (in Central America, Africa and Asia) who are committed to the development of sustainable and environmental projects. Over the past 10 years, Challenges has partnered with and provided capacity-building support to a wide range of organisations focussed on sustainable development.
For the International Environment Day, it is our pleasure to outline the work of one of our partner organisation’s in Sri Lanka, RRI.
RRI
(Information provided by RRI)
RRI is a non-profit organisation based in Sri Lanka which believes that by bringing together people and the environment, the building of a harmonious and sustainably managed world can be helped. Established in 2002 by a group of environmentalists, they initially collaborated with the Eden Project in the UK to develop their first external training centre. From these humble beginnings they have grown to support seven plant nurseries, work in over 20 communities and 15 schools across the South and East of Sri Lanka, restoring more than 1,000 acres of land and planting nearly one million trees.
The beautiful island of Sri Lanka is a world-renowned, global biodiversity hotspot. It is home to more than 2% of the world's known amphibians and 3,210 flowering plant species, of which a huge 916 are endemic. Overall, about 27% of the country's plants and 22% of its wildlife is endemic. But this biological wealth is threatened through deforestation, use of agrochemicals, introduction of invasive species and the tsunami. These problems do not only affect ecosystems, but also impact on communities, particularly rural ones, struggling to survive. To stop and reverse this environmental destruction, and to empower communities, RRI delivers sustainable and innovative projects, which integrate biodiversity conservation with livelihood development.
Our volunteers
Two volunteers will depart shortly to work with RRI this summer. Firstly, Michael, a highly experienced IT consultant, will assess data storage and security system capacity and develop a project-based database for RRI. He will also provide IT training to the staff.
The second volunteer, Lydia will volunteer as the Marketing Assistant promoting organic agriculture, the protection and conservation of Sri Lanka’s endangered species and RRI’s commercial products such as eco tours. Her placement will involve writing and developing marketing materials as required under the existing strategy and expanding this later in other areas for new products. She will also be offering highly anticipated HR support.
At present, Challenges Worldwide has various programmes running including Capacity Building for Enterprise (CBE) in Malawi, Capacity Building for Justice (CBJ) in Malawi, the Newly Qualified Lawyers Programme (NQLP) and the Strathclyde University Programme.
Challenges Worldwide has a number of exciting and dynamic roles in HR, IT, Project management, Business development, Strategic planning, Administration, Communications, Social research, Finance, Marketing and law. For our latest volunteer opportunities, check out our Opportunities Section . If you would like to undertake a volunteer assignment, please send your CV & Covering Letter to apply@challengesworldwide.
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