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The Alliance Française, a non-profit institute in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, gathered pupils and students in an exhibition to raise awareness of environmental challenges being experienced and how they can be managed.
The institute said the exhibition calls for action by addressing essential questions, such as non-carbon energy, food, transportation, and urban planning while proposing concrete solutions.
Director of Alliance Française, Port Harcourt, Mrs Marina Lacal, disclosed this during an exclusive interview with South-South PUNCH on the sidelines at the end of the three-day exhibition tagged ‘The Endless World,’ at its premises in Port Harcourt.
Lacal said the invitation extended to the schools was a ritual during the institute’s exhibition, saying the latest was part of activities for World Environment Day, celebrated on 5th June 2004, though the event was coming several days later for purposes of convenience.
She disclosed that the exhibition was made possible by the French Embassy in Nigeria and the Institut Français, Paris and anchored on a novel authored by a French environmentalist and his friend.
Lacal stated, “For two weeks, we have an exhibition in the whole of Alliance Française about the world environment day to raise public awareness of the challenges of ecological transition.’’
“This exhibition is made possible by the French Embassy in Nigeria and the Institut Français, Paris. The exhibition is about the book titled ‘Le Monde Sans Fin,’ which In French means ‘World Without End.’
“It (the book) was one of the best sellers in France in 2022, written by Jean-Marc Jancovici and Christophe Blain. Two aspects of the environment and most of the exhibition talks about energy, how we use it and how it can affect the planet and how to manage environmental challenges facing us.”
She explained the rationale behind inviting pupils and students to the exhibition, saying that the institute partners with schools, adding that it is an avenue to deliver some content for them to experience the French language.
She added, “It is a ritual in Alliance Française whenever we have exhibitions or events, we invite schools because we partner with them, we try to give them some content to experience the French language differently.
“So all the exhibition is mainly in French and there is a translation in English for those who want to look at it and don’t speak French.”
The Director of Alliance Française, Port Harcourt, further said the exhibition was aimed at “giving some education support and to encourage them to learn French,” saying about 165 children and students from various schools in Rivers State registered for the show.
She averred that though the children are not fluent in French, they could pick some words and recognize some words from the panel display.
She added, “Again, it is interesting because they have nice knowledge of the general topic of the environment. We can see that they are very young, they are talking about renewable energy as the first energy they have in mind which is maybe not the one I can have.
“I definitely didn’t have that when I was a child. So I’m very impressed by their interest in everything I explained. So it was a nice experience and I think it helps them to understand one of two things about the environment.”
Mrs Lacal noted that “the exhibition calls for action by addressing essential questions such as non-carbon energy, food, transportation, and urban planning while proposing concrete solutions.”
South-South PUNCH correspondent who covered the event reports that the schools that participated in the exhibition are Surbloom Primary School, Woji, Port Harcourt, Pleroma School, Woji, Port Harcourt, and Goldgate Montessori International School, Woji, Port Harcourt.
Others were Hopespring School, Mgbuoba, Port Harcourt, Edufort International School, Odili Road, Port Harcourt, Helms Bridge, Nkpogu, Port Harcourt, University of Port Harcourt and the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Rumuolumeni, Port Harcourt.
Speaking with our reporter, a French teacher from Goldgate Montessori International School, Woji, Mrs Judith Idoghonoba, who led her pupils to the exhibition expressed satisfaction with the outing which she said was rewarding.
Mrs Idoghonoba, stated, “We are privileged to be one of the schools Mrs Lacal, chose to come and experience more about the environment. How to keep the environment safe, those things that cause problems in the environment.
“She enlightened us a lot, the children learnt a lot and they are well informed on what to do to have a clean and healthy environment. They also learnt some new expressions in French, relating to the environment and they see what they need to know about things happening in the atmosphere around them.”
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