The United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York has proclaimed the year 2008 as its  International Year of Planet Earth (IYPE).

The year’s purpose encapsulated in it strap line Earth sciences for society, is to reduce risks for society caused by natural and human-induced hazards, reduce health problems by improving understanding of the medical aspects of the Earth science, determine the non-human factor in climatic change and encourage more young people to study Earth science at university.

According to reports, a large variety of activities for the IYPE are being developed by the 49 nationals IYPE committees including The Gambia. At the international level, several major events are scheduled including the Global Launch Event of the International Year of Planet Earth, to be held in Paris, at UNESCO headquarters, on February 12th and 13th 2008.

The Gambia has also set up a IYPE committee under the chairmanship of Abdoulie Cham to partake in the event. In an interview with the Daily Observer Yassin Khan, the secretary general of The Gambia’s IYPE committee said, a maximum of 350 students age 18-22 year from all around the world will be invited to participate in the Global Launch Event. “We encourage Gambian students to take part on the competition and they are invited to approach one of the themes mentioned below in a creative way.

This might vary from writing an essay with maximum of 1600 words, song or poem with a maximum of 400 words producing a drawing or painting on A3 size papers and making a ten minutes short video film recorded digitally. Students are invited to focus their item of work on one or more of the following ten topics Groundwater, Hazards, Earth & Health, Climate, Earth’s Resource, Megacities, Deep Earth, Ocean and Soil - & Life”.

“ She added that  The Gambia national committee will select the best five articles for submission to the IYPE  secretariat in Trondheim, Norway to select the best from around the world to participate in the international competition to be held in Paris from the 12-13 February 2008. “ Interested students should send their articles to Lend a Hand office in Kanifing latest on 30th November 2007” the savvy national IYPE secretary general concludes.