Local non-profit organisation, Macau IC2 Association, is organising a series of activities on Earth Day (22 April) next week to enhance the public awareness of environmental protection, with its members that are citizens with intellectual disabilities and autism assisting in planning the activities.
It’s the second consecutive year for IC2 to organise activities — including tree planting, a green walk and a seminar on environmental issues — for Earth Day, when more than a billion people around the world every year participate in various initiatives to advocate support for environmental protection.
“Following the success of our activities last year in raising the public awareness of environmental protection, we hope to turn this initiative into an annual event of our association,” said Ruby Lou Sio Ha, a member of the Parents Council of IC2, today (Wednesday).
IC2, which stands for “I can too”, is an association made up of people with intellectual disabilities and autism, their parents and other volunteers. The association, which now has about 165 members with intellectual disabilities and autism aged 16 or above, has advocated rights for them and a more inclusive society for the past six years since its establishment.
“Our initiative last year for the Earth Day has also been acknowledged by the [Macau] SAR Government… as we are the first rehabilitation group in Macau to promote environmental awareness, ” Ms Lou said.
One of the highlights of IC2’s initiative is that its members help prepare and organise the activities for the Earth Day, who have taken an event organising course with lectures delivered by professionals and volunteers.
Ruby O, founder and chairperson of the Society of Food & Environmental Health (Macau), delivered a lecture about low-carbon, green lifestyle to IC2 members today (Wednesday).
According to Ada Lo, the event organising course instructor and a long-time volunteer at IC2, a total of 13 IC2 members took the event organising course this year, and eight members have successfully completed the whole course and helped prepare the Earth Day activities.
“Macau IC2 has been established for almost six years… and they [IC2 members] group together because they want to have a better quality of life,” Ms Lo, who is also an event specialist, said on Wednesday. “In the other associations or NGOs, people in general arrange programmes for them [the members] but here [the members] arrange programmes for themselves.”
She also pointed out that the scale of activities for the Earth Day this year is larger than the one last year because the IC2 members have accumulated more experiences.
“The first year I took time to get to know my students, and the second year I think they are ready for the next step… to be more [visionary] to understand topics not only within Macau IC2,” she added.
The activities IC2 plans for 22 April this year include: a walk from Macau Tower to Artyzen Grand Lapa Macau on the peninsula; tree planting at the lawn of the hotel; musical performance; and a seminar at the hotel, where Ms Ruby O and Vincent Mossfield, Regional Director of multinational risk management and insurance brokerage Willis Towers Watson, will talk about sustainability practice in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area and environmental protection policy in Asia respectively.
What do you think?
This strategic reallocation of resources can help companies create a significant competitive advantage.