As the world marks Earth Day (22 April), children and young people from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are sharing their hopes for the planet through song and prayer.
SAT-7 filmed a beautiful music video, This is Our Land, with young people in Syria as part of its Youth for an Enabling Society (YES) project.
The song calls on people to “be the change” in caring for the environment, its creatures, and all of humanity with a powerful refrain:
“Don’t think that what you are doing is little and it has no importance.
The impact of the small butterfly is huge.”
The video is one of 41 youth-led initiatives filmed as part of the YES project’s care for the environment activity. Others include the work of Caroline, a young woman from Lebanon, who is using plastic waste to make public works of art. She has so far achieved five Guinness World Records for her large-scale projects, including a 28.5-metre-tall Christmas tree made out of plastic bottles, and a 300 square-metre Lebanese flag, made to lift people’s spirits after the devastating Beirut port blast in 2020.
The project team also filmed an enterprising scheme in Sohag, Upper Egypt, which turns waste from banana trees into products such as bags and coasters. The waste was previously thrown into the Nile or burnt, causing damage to the environment, but is now a source of employment to many people.
The YES project is designed to equip and encourage young people in the MENA to invest themselves in their local communities and wider society. You can read more about it here.
POWERFUL PRAYER
Meanwhile, a regular viewer of SAT-7 PARS’ children’s programs, Sarina from Iran, shared a powerful prayer for the world with us. As well as praying for the natural world and its protection, Sarina prayed for people’s physical and spiritual needs.
Join Sarina in her prayer for the world on this Earth Day:
“I would like the world to be green and full of beauty. That the trees and flowers will always be. And animals, whether in the jungles or in the seas, may all be safe. We must take care of our living environment and save it from pollution so that the world may retain its beauty.
“I would like the world to be full of justice, that no one may be reproached because of their skin colour, gender, or religious beliefs, and all to have equal opportunities. The world should overflow with hope and opportunities for growth and advancement.
“I would love the world to be full of kindness and compassion, where people might smile at one another and take care of each other during difficult times to ensure that all live together in joy and harmony.
“I would like there to be no hunger so that all people might have the food they need and no child to suffer from lack of food. The world must be such that all feel secure and at peace.
“I would love for the world to be full of joy and gladness with no one being broken-hearted. I would love for all to come to faith in Christ so that people may know peace, joy, and love.”
AMEN.
