As part of the awareness campaign for EC³o-ASIA 2010, Central Secretariat officials, Mr. Decious, ADSGAF Executive Member, Mr. Lourdhayan, ADSGAF Secretary, and Mr. Vincent Jain, ADSGAF Chief Executive visited South East Asia.

The officials visited Nanyang Girls High School in Singapore on November 6^th where they met with Teachers Ms. Amy Lim-Wong Soo Mei and Ms. Bridgit Sebastian. They had a good discussion on the possible participation of the students to the conference. Ms. Amy showed a video presentation of the school’s Pre-School Environmental Education Kit (PEEK) during the discussion. PEEK was prepared to educate the young children on the importance of trees. It carries the message: “The trees are my brothers. The ferns are my sisters. We forest folk are one family.”

The team also visited the Regional Secretariat, Miriam College in the Philippines, on November 9^th. In the meeting that was conducted, Dr. Donna Paz Reyes, Executive Director of Environmental Studies Institute (ESI) of Miriam College and Head of South-East Asia Regional Secretariat was briefed on the developments on the conference preparations being undertaken by the Central Secretariat and other Regional Secretariats.

Apart from the conference details, the group also tackled the following:

• The possible institution of an International Environment Education Center in partnership with Miriam College aimed at broadening the horizon and exposure of fisher people to environmental issues and on the part of Miriam, be exposed to the marine environment its unique requirement.
• ADSGAF’s web-designing project for schools, institutions and organizations aimed at further strengthening partnership with Miriam College and for the mutual benefit of both.

The meeting was followed by a tour of the campus where the visitors were brought to the 2-acre mini forest, waste decomposition area and segregation area.

In the morning of November 11^th Mr. Jain met with Sr. Belma Villareal of Our Lady of Grace Academy (OLGA), a school based in the southern part of the Philippines. Being located on the part of the country where interaction with the sea and ocean is abundant, their students are concerned with the current condition of marine resources in the country and have expressed interest in the conference to be an avenue for coming together and making a stand and a solid move related to its preservation and conservation.

Series of awareness classes in different schools have been scheduled. To start with, Mr. Jain met with a group of students under the Adult Education Program of Miriam College on the evening of November 11^th. The session was well attended and the students had a very good interaction with the speaker.

The students were conferred with Certificates of Merit and gifts by Mr. Jain. They were asked to prepare projects to further explore the exchange student program between India and the Philippines

Note: EC³o-ASIA 2010 is an international conference on Environment and Climate Change for Asian students and teachers to be held in Chennai, India on July13-15, 2010. Being organized by the Association of Deep Sea Going Artisanal Fishermen (ADSGAF), EC³o-ASIA 2010 has its regional secretariats in the Philippines, South Korea and Maldives