BEIJING, Apr. 24 (INP): China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) held a teenager art exhibition empowering Pakistani children with love, Gwadar Pro reported on Monday. “It is sincerely expected that by collecting teenager’s creative artistic works, we can show the new generation’s understanding of Pakistani refugee and environmental issues to China, revealing their awareness of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals,” said an officer from CBCGDF on the occasion of public welfare program Empowering with Love: Pakistan, being in full swing.

According to the report, to date, some 2.7 million Afghans have been forcibly displaced by war, conflict and violence. Neighboring Pakistan, which is also a developing country, accepted 1.4 million of them. The sudden influx of people exacerbated the shortage of natural resources. Villages are often far apart, and limited water points require residents to walk hundreds of meters every day to get water. Facing hot weather, people have no electrical appliances for storing and preserving food and medicine.

Nonetheless, over the past four decades, Pakistan has made incredible efforts to resettle and protect Afghan refugees and support the maintenance of regional peace. When humanitarian response capacity is reaching its upper limit, UNHCR has long explored the use of clean energy to meet the challenges faced by host communities and refugee families: water, electricity, light, and heat. In China, UNHCR is joining hands with CBCGDF to contribute to the sustainable use of clean energy for Afghan refugees and Pakistani residents through a youth charity art exhibition since last year.

At present, the first batch of excellent works have been summarized. Through different themes, including new energy robots, marine animals poisoned by pollution, etc., young painters strive to use brush to reshape the fate of many people with light and warmth in Pakistan, many of whom are teenagers like them. In 2023, UNHCR has built a renewable energy-powered micro-grid system in villages where refugees and Pakistani residents live together, so as to achieve convenient electricity use in areas far away from or lacking national grid coverage.

Thus, hospitals and health stations receive uninterrupted power, so as to medical testing and treatment are no longer at risk due to power outages; campuses are opened with more flexible hours, and children have the opportunity to read and study even at night.  When electricity is sufficient, solar energy will replace traditional fuels that drive water pumps and wells, enabling more abundant and clean water resources to effectively benefit more people.At the moment, project-related donations are currently underway, and with the help of the Chinese internet giant Tencent, CBCGDF can assist the project in a manner of “planting a sun with paintbrush.” 

And it is reported that CBCGDF will hold the final exhibition in Beijing, from July 1 to 2.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-INP