The South Asian Voluntary Association of Environmentalists (SAVAE), a Kashmir-based organization which focuses on environmental policy in South Asia, concluded its drive of identifying and promoting the young environmental ambassadors.
According to a statement, the youngest hiker in the drivewas three-year-old Aizel who was accompanied by her father Shafkat Masoodi, ahiker.
“The baby hiker remained the main attraction of thisweek-long eco-campaign that concluded today on 4th of July 2019. We identifiedand tracked down these young and budding hikers to project them onto the centrestage and be the cheerleaders of critical environmental concerns that confrontus all,” said Bilal Ahmad, Chairperson SAVAE.
The NGO organised a series of treks and community awarenesssessions primarily undertaken by young trek enthusiasts in the hilly terrain ofKangan.
The event logistics were sponsored by a Bahrain basedEco-friendly IT company ‘Marvel Technology Services and Information Systems.’
“I read about this organization from an overseas web portal,and upon noticing the uniqueness of the event that roped in very young andpre-teen trek enthusiasts, we decided to offer our collaboration and logisticalsupport aiming at the safety of all the young participants,” said Adil Ashai,Director of Marvel Technology Services and Information Systems.
Senior journalist, Athar Parvaiz, who was the guest of honoron the occasion, said: “We tend to ignore that it is our water resources likethe wetlands, lakes and glaciers in our region that attract tourists to thestate.”
The participants were felicitated at the SAVAE headquartersby the overseas event sponsors and the baby girl Aizel was awarded for beingthe youngest trekker.
Psychologist Dr Roshan Ara, dietician Dr Mudasir HamidBaghal and budding green-chef Arif Ashraf Bhat were present on the occasion.