PRESS RELEASES

US Consulate Teams Up with East Jerusalem Students to Beautify Their Public School as Part of Several Environmental Activities

For Immediate Release

April 20, 2008

Jerusalem

Rolling up their sleeves and happily getting their hands dirty, volunteers from the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem joined dozens of public school students from Al-Tur Elementary Boys school and their youth leaders to beautify the school’s courtyard with plants and flowers.  Consul for Press and Cultural Affairs Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm explained that the plants, donated by the Consulate, were chosen for their suitability to local conditions. 

“We want to help the students appreciate the unique beauty of this region’s flora and the importance of preserving the environment,” Schweitzer-Bluhm noted.  One of the youth leaders chimed in that she didn’t mind the weeding as long as the students promised to take good care of the new plants.  Smiling broadly, a nearby sixth grader reassured the leader that, “I will come early every day to give that rose bush water.”

The beautification project is but one in a series of initiatives that the Consulate is spearheading to engage Palestinian youth on issues related to the environment.  In February, the Consulate held the first of three digital video conferences between environmental students at Al Quds University in Al Azariyya and Allegheny University in the American state of Pennsylvania.  The students discussed water resource management, followed by a discussion on climate change in March.  The topic of solid waste pollution will close the university series on Earth Day, April 22. 

Another initiative to conduct workshops on the value of recycling will begin next week.  Community youth centers run by the American non-governmental organization RISOL, will host the workshops that will introduce youth in Salfeet, Hebron and Nablus to the dangers of littering and benefits of recycling.  A third program will soon take 80 children from the Jericho area on field trips to explore local nature and witness recycling demonstrations as part of a U.S. Consulate- funded project with the Palestinian Wildlife Society.

“When it comes to preserving the environment, we are all in this together.  Through this series of programs, leading up to Earth Day, we are trying to foster a dialogue that will let us identify ways to solve environmental issues together,“ Ms. Schweitzer-Bluhm concluded. 

For more information please contact the U.S. Consulate’s Press Office at 02-622-6908 or 02-622-6909 or Assistant Information Officer Christina Higgins at 054-678-8501.