YOUTH IGNITE | Empowering Taiwan's Next Generation

The Walk One More Mile College Student Empowerment Program focuses on empowering young people with the abilities they need. In this Dream Realization Action, the students focused on a specific social issue and discussed what they thought, saw, and observed about the issue and how to implement concretely to bring changes.  

When students realize the environmental issue - there is a lot of garbage on the seaside, they find that "more than 200 kilograms of plastics are dumped into the ocean every second in the world, and more than 8 million tons of plastics remain in the ocean every year", and these plastics or garbage cause many animals in the ocean died, leaving only rubbish in their stomachs. After knowing the seriousness of these rubbishes that could not be decomposed by nature, these young people decided to arouse the public's awareness of reducing plastic and not littering by actually going to the beach to clean up the beach and recording the process of beach cleanup. The beach cleanup location they chose is the Qigu Guosheng Lighthouse in Tainan. The reason for the spot is that there are fewer tourists here, so the youths can have self-dialogue and connect with one's own life during the process.  

During the beach cleanup action, the young people were very excited and divided in groups of 2-3 people to bag the plastic and glass garbage they saw on the beach. Seeing their enthusiasm and seriousness for the beach cleanup action, their heart of caring for the environment is touching. Unconsciously, those young people filled four to five bags of garbage, and the seaside is full of man-made garbage such as plastics and tires, including the waste that we carelessly pay attention to in our lives.

After the beach cleanup, we went back to the MSM Tainan service station to discuss the gains and advantages of today's Dream Realization Action, what needs to be improved and how to apply it in our daily life. A student shared "Due to beach cleanup, I realized that I use too much plastic bags, straws, bamboo chopsticks, etc., and I want to change it afterwards, and I have to bring my own reusable tableware." 

Some teenagers also mentioned that "Because of this Dream Realization Action, I fell in love with beach cleanup, and I always wanted to participate in beach cleanup, but there was no chance. This time, completed this Dream Realization Action together with the team, I found that beach cleanup is super meaningful, and I still want to sign up for another beach cleanup! " Seeing that young people have a lot of reflect for themselves or their lives because of the Dream Realization Action; I feel that this action is very meaningful!

When they finished this Dream Realization Action, the young people saw things that need to be adjusted in their lives, and also found that too much garbage had caused a lot of pollution to the ocean and the environment. so that the young people realized that the Beach Cleanup - Dream Realization Action is meaningful, not only can have a deep connection and resonance with the community and the environment, but also can affect the environment and change the community through their own small effort.

Through the actions together, the young people discuss, communicate, plan, think and be empowered, and have a common goal to do a meaningful thing, everyone feels happy!

Let us love the earth together and protect the environment, there is no planet B!