By: Rember Cerón, 12 years old
The following is a submission of one of our applicants to this year’s Chaa Creek Eco Kids Summer Camp.
Officially known as the Children’s Summer Camp Scholarship Program, the annual event gives 24 young Belizeans between the ages of 8 and 13 a chance to learn about their natural world through a mix of adventure, social interaction, fun and hands-on education aimed at instilling a sense of wonder and responsibility for the environment.
The Eco Kids are selected after submitting a 300 word written essay which is reviewed and shortlisted by the Chaa Creek scholarship committee with the winners going on to attend the summer camp.
Chaa Creek will be providing all lodging, three healthy meals and snacks each day, structured educational activities, arts and craft materials, tee shirts, 24-hour camp counselor supervision, and guided tours conducted by licensed naturalist guides.
Good luck potential Eco Kids!
Eco kid: Savior of the Belizean Rainforest!
I want to be an eco-kid because I want to preserve nature. Nature is all living things that God created for us to enjoy. He created all animals, plants and even us humans. When I look at the rainforest, I would like to just start planting more and more trees so that it would grow more and more beautiful for all to view and enjoy. I wish that people would start saying that forests would be forbidden to touch and that they would start to plant more trees instead of cutting them. Trees are so important for all since they provide food, medicines and the most important for us humans; they provide oxygen for us too.
The rainforest is home to numerous species such as The Tapir, Scarlet Macaw, Toucan, etc. It is the home of a wide variety of flora and fauna. In the anxiety of developing the world, and expanding to provide dwellings, humans are destroying nature. When someone builds a house or a building, they destroy many animal species and plants; thus, contributing to the destruction of the rainforest. Another way that humans are destroying the forests is through fires. Being careless can cause any forest fire and so it destroys nature. The only way how the rainforest can develop or grow more is by us taking care of it and planting more trees.
At my school we are aware that we have to help the rainforests to develop so we are planning to do a parade to create awareness. As such, we started to explore the rainforests, nature and all its living creatures. Within the rainforest we discovered how plants and trees grow according to its own development. Nature is something we should always appreciate for it is the provider of our most valuable thing here on earth, oxygen. Trees and plants avoid the ozone layer to slowly disappear from the outside of the earth and in doing so avoiding the sun’s harmful rays from getting any closer to us. Many creatures are endangered and face extinction because we human are cutting down the trees which they call home. Conserving our environment, reducing, reusing and recycling will benefit us now and in the many years to come. Let us continue planting trees to make the future of our Belize a better and brighter one. Be careful on how we take care and provide for the rainforest for it is precious and a necessity for us to live in.