Ronan Carey, Alan McEllistrim and Maeve Burke, Transition Year students in Mercy Mounthawk who were part of the class who won the ECO-UNESCO prize in Dublin on Tuesday. Photo by Dermot Crean
GREEN Teens from Mercy Secondary School Mounthawk scooped the Senior Water Prize at ECO-UNESCO’s Young Environmentalist Awards.
The awards ceremony was held in the Round Room of the Mansion House, Dublin on Tuesday, May 20.
In attendance were over 600 young people, Mr. Han Qunli, Director of the Division of Ecological and Earth Sciences and the Secretary of the Man and the Biosphere Programme, Minster for Children and Youth Affairs Charlie Flanagan, Lord Mayor of Dublin Oisín Quinn and the master of ceremonies, Aidan Power.
The group won the category with their project ‘Don’t go with the Flo’ who examined the negative effects that fluoridating our water has on human health.
Their project was two fold; the short term aim was to raise awareness about the dangers of fluoride; their long term aim is to rid Irish water of fluoride.
The group began their awareness campaign by surveying the public to assess their knowledge on fluoride. They then gave talks in their local community on the dangers of fluoride, held public taste tests on fluoridated and unflouridated water, handed out information leaflets and held a bake sale to help raise funds to continue their project.
Their main action plan is to make a series of videos which will appeal to the public and highlight the problem. They also hope to encourage local businesses to go fluoride free by purchasing reverse osmosis filters.
The group was just one of the 75 lucky groups who were selected for the finals from almost 4,000 young people throughout the Republic and Northern Ireland at regional ‘‘Dragons’ Den’’ style ECO-Dens in March.
The annual awards programme run by ECO-UNESCO, Ireland’s environmental education and youth organisation, recognises and rewards young people that carry out local environmental action projects.
The programme has provided thousands of young people, aged 10 -18, an opportunity to take action and raise awareness in their own community on issues that matter the most to them.
