“My Mask – I care” campaign
Even though in partial lockdown, the spirit of YRE students from Malta was not restrained: they managed once again to bring positive environmental change and raise awareness in their community by individual campaigns.
It is worth mentioning the “My Mask – I care” campaign, conceived and promoted by the YRE – Litter Less Campaign students at Saint Nicholas College Secondary School Had – Dingli.
After investigations the effect of Covid- 19 on the environment, student’s attention was particularly drawn to the negative impact of disposable masks. They presented their thorough research findings to the school assembly and lead another presentation exposing the pros and cons of different types of masks.
The motivation of the students drove them to create a Facebook “Face mask” challenge: from the school to the community, all citizens were invited to post a photo of their reusable mask. The wisely chosen social media Facebook allowed an impressive dissemination, leading to the publication of the challenge on the pages of the surrounding local councils and the official education division website.
Their journalistic spirit cultivated through the YRE programme made the students realise that, if they wanted to achieve greater impact results and better promote reusable masks, they should explore the habits of masks use among the students of their school. Therefore, a survey with questions regarding the mask’s preferences, safety and use was conducted among year 9 and 10 students.
Based on their findings, all of which can be found online, a campaign video aiming to convince students to stop using their disposable masks was created.
Finally, a fund-raising event allowed students to sew reusable masks, according to the safe masks criteria of the WHO, for every year 9 and 10 student in the school.