Nickelodeon picks Caroline Sahagun as rep to meet on climate change
MANILA, Philippines - Nickelodeon, the most widely distributed kids’ network in the world, picked ten-year old, Caroline Sahagun as The Big Green Help Shell Environmentalist to represent Philippines at the United Nations Environment Program 2009 Tunza International Children’s Conference held in Daejeon, South Korea last Aug. 17 to 20. At the conference emerging leaders representing three billion people met to air their call for action on climate change.
Supported by Shell Singapore, Nickelodeon and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) jointly put up an essay-writing competition early this year as part of Nickelodeon’s The Big Green Help campaign. Children below 14 years-old submitted essays to voice their opinion on environmental issues, on how members of the public can help, and what they have been actively doing to help the environment.
Caroline Sahagun’s winning essay told about global warming and the importance of conserving the environment for the future generation. Caroline Sahagun is passionate about recycling and believes that the solution starts with small things done at home such as trash segregation. She seeks to explore ways to spread the message to protect and preserve the beauty of the environment. At the conference, she will join approximately 750 children from over 100 countries to learn and voice their concerns for the environment. The conference will specifically focus on key issues such as climate change and its effect on bio-diversity, climate change and young people, water and sustainable lifestyle, and will offer plenary sessions, workshops and field trips to the participants.
“Nickelodeon’s The Big Green Help campaign is a great platform to empower children to step up, learn more about the environment and participate in discussing issues about climate change in order to make a difference. The 2009 TUNZA International Children’s Conference by UNEP presents an excellent opportunity for The Big Green Help participants that we have chosen to discuss and interact with children from around the world and inspire their friends to take action at a local grassroots level,” said Indra Suharjono, executive vice president and managing director of MTV Networks Southeast Asia and Greater China.
“The Tunza Children and Youth Conference is an important gathering of young people and an opportunity for them to discuss and to prepare their positions surrounding Copenhagen and climate change, but it is more than that. It is a gathering of the generation that will inherit the outcome of the decisions taken in December and beyond,” Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and executive director of the UN Environment Programme.
