UP CLOSE ... with Alvania and Natalia Lawen, twin founders of Eco-Anse Boileau ‘Youths must develop the ability to say no to negative inf |13 December 2016
Twin sisters Alvania and Natalia Lawen
Alvania and Natalia Lawen are twin sisters born on March 22, 2001. They both reside at Anse Boileau and share the same love and passion for reading, social media and more importantly an interest in the environment.
Alvania joined the wildlife club while she was in primary two. Later in primary four she came up with a rain water harvesting project, which was highly praised hence grew her zeal to become an environmental activist.
As for Natalia she was greatly inspired by her older sister Jessica, who also formed part of wildlife club and thus motivated her to join.
“As I grew older I got to understand the importance of a healthy environment on our daily lives and so until today I am a fervent eco warrior,” says Natalia.
What are the responses you get from the general public, given that you two are quite well known in this particular field?
“We do not always get a positive response; some people are very sceptical about the importance of nature,” they say.
Elaborating further, Natalia says there is a lack of education as people often believe that environmentalists are against development – for instance when we try to advocate against the cutting down of a large number of trees.
Despite such challenges Natalia says she knows that “there are no easy tasks in life”, and thus she has to remain strong and bold enough to do what is right.
“On the other hand there are people who support us and encourage us. It’s always rewarding to see that some of our friends are positively influenced by us, for example in our current wildlife club we started with only three or four members and now it is a much bigger club,” she says.
What are the pertinent issues which you think Seychelles are currently facing in relation to environment?
“I think one of our biggest challenges is a lack of awareness and the reluctance for people to adopt a more open mindset and a sustainable lifestyle,” says Alvania. As an example, she says that the refusal to adapt to a more sustainable lifestyle can be seen when it comes to the use of plastic bags among our population and the mindset that we can’t do without it.
“We also face an alarming rate of coastal erosion,” says Alvania. “Even if a lot has been done to manage coastal erosion, I feel more should be done.”
As for Natalia she believes that climate change is one of the most serious environmental issues that Seychelles currently faces.
She argues that in turn climate change is also the cause of other issues such as coastal erosion itself. For this reason they, along with two of their other schoolmates, have worked on a project entitled ‘How climate change contributes towards coastal erosion?’ As part of the project, they have carried out surveys and interviews with an inter-generational crowd to seek the opinion of the public and to try and come up with solutions to this issue. The project was presented at the school science fair held in October.
Recently there was an announcement regarding the ban of plastics, what are your thoughts about the announcement?
“The announcement is a very good one, we don’t always need plastics, now we can make greater use of bag pack and our ordinary hand bags,” says Alvania. In her opinion the challenge will be the argument that reusable bags are not in trend, and to this she confidently says that there are several practices that were not in trend once, but with time have turned into leading fashion, and hence we can adopt our lifestyle and also make customised bags that will cater to everyone’s need.
Likewise Natalia says that when she heard the news she smiled, being a SYAH-Seychelles member she had helped campaign for a Seychelles free from plastic bags and now she can finally see the fruits of all their hard work.
She also urges members of the public to start making use of reusable bags and other alternatives of plastic bags saying that “even though we are a small nation, the ban of plastics in Seychelles will set an example for other nations to follow as after all the smallest voices can make it major”.
How did the idea to create an environmental club for Anse Boileau come about?
“We wanted to make a difference, then our youth worker wanted to make several clubs that will tackle different issues and given our love for the environment we decided to create an environmental club for our district - Anse Boileau, and we named it Eco-Anse Boileau,” the twins explain.
Recounting their experience the sisters say that it was not easy at first to start the club.
“Can you imagine two fifteen-year-olds calling around and asking for sponsors?” they ask. “Sadly some people tend to become sceptical about our potential as soon as they learn of our age.”
Since its opening in July 2016, Eco-Anse Boileau has been working hard to achieve its aim which focuses on educating the community and raising awareness on environmental issues. To this day, the club has organised events such as clean-ups and educational visits and they hope that in the near future the club can work on a water harvesting project and also on a project relating to waste management.
Alvania is the president of Eco-Anse Boileau while Natalia is the vice-president.
Being only fifteen, how do you balance your academic priorities with all the extracurricular activities you do?
“It is a challenge, a really big one, but I never fail to remind myself about the importance of a balanced life,” says Natalia.
As for Alvania, she explains that she does not set a limit to her achievements. “My motto is to have no limit, and I respect people who always want to experience something new and are open to new ideas.”
She says that even if sometimes she may find herself exhausted both from her academic responsibilities and from extracurricular commitment, it is important to never give up as you never know how your handwork will influence your future. In her case, the rain water harvesting project which she did eight years ago marked the beginning of her journey to becoming a committed environmental activist, and in 2016 she won a dream trip to Aldabra with Eco- School.
Any special message for the youths of Seychelles?
The twin urge the youths to make the most of the opportunities available to them both academically and outside of school and not to give any good opportunity up. They also state that the importance of God, family members and friends in one’s life should not be undervalued.
On her side, Natalia acknowledges that there are indeed many negative influences and peer pressure that affect Seychellois youths. She says that youths “must develop the ability to say no to negative influences and not to give up on life itself…saying ‘no’ should never be a sign of weakness”.
As for Alvania, she encourages the youths not to stress themselves too much and that when things get tough, there will always be support available and someone present in difficult times.
Compiled by S. M. Barbé