ISLAMABAD, NOV 24 /DNA/ – The embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Islamabad organized an eco-film festival in the Fatima Jinnah (F-9) Park of Islamabad. The event was meant to create awareness of climate change and a sense of responsibility among the general public, especially school children and youth for collective climate action.An overwhelming number of children, parents and teachers from different schools attended the event. An animated film,“The Adventure Planet”,was also projected in an open-air mode; and the participants remained engaged with the movie with enthusiasm and great interest.

H.E. Mr Philipp Deichmann, Deputy Head of German Missionin Islamabad accompanied by the first secretary Ms Dorota Berezicki, inaugurated the event by planting a tree, followed by his speech. Mr Philipp highlighted the 60 years of Germany-Pakistan friendship under which Germany has provided financial and technical assistance to Pakistan. Under a recently signed “Germany-Pakistan climate and energy initiative”, Germany will provide multimillion Euros over the coming 3-4 years to enhance the capacity of Pakistani institutions to adapt to climate change and accelerate the country’s efforts for significant change in society’s attitude towards climate change and transition to a low-carbon future, said the diplomate. He stressed the need to collaborate at the state level for devising a valuable strategy to mitigate the impacts of climate change and reduce the vulnerabilities.

The embassy organized different environment games to educate the children on how climate change affected our lives, foods, lifestyles, and our responsibilities to look after our planet. As per the theme of the event, only food stalls selling eco-friendly food items were allowed to serve the food on the event site, which was very much liked and appreciated by the guests and children. Parallel with this, a farmer’s market was established to sell organic foods and health care products. Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) of Islamabad, Mr Shehryar khan, thanked the German Embassy for organizing an informative and fabulous event for families and children. The ADC was excited to see the farmer’s market and desired to expand the market size for catering the organic food for a higher number of people, and he assured his support to scale up the organic food business.

Moreover, the solid waste management company showed demonstrations to teach the children and families to segregatethe solid waste at the source.