Romario
Photo Credit: Romario Valentine

10-year-old Romario Valentine has spent the last four years of his life fighting to protect the planet by cleaning up beaches, planting trees and saving birds.

 

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Umhlanga, South Africa (22 April 2022) – Romario Valentine is a pint-size planet warrior and artist from Umhlanga, Durban. He has dedicated the last four years of his young life to protecting our planet. A noble cause indeed!

Entirely focused on his passions, he has advocated for bird and marine conservation, climate change, and deforestation.

Romario helped 900 endangered birds at Umgeni River Bird Park, Durban, during the covid-19 lockdown in 2020 and has raised over R55,000 in the last 12 months for bird species in Durban and in Western Cape. He did a Bird Habitat Restoration Campaign on BackABuddy for abandoned African Grey Parrots at Birds of Eden, Plettenberg Bay, Western Cape. Crowdfunding was used to raise funds to complete a 30×30m aviary so the birds can have a happy place to live freely. The bird sanctuary is home to 3,500 indigenous and exotic endangered birds and is the world’s largest free-flight aviary. He aims to prevent them from becoming extinct.

He was devastated when the Durban floods resulted in a mass of pollution on the beaches. Being on school holiday, Romario took to the beach to do his 220th beach clean recently. In an interview with Porky’s People, Romario shared some encouraging words to help people save the world.

“We all need to come together to slow down the effects of climate change which causes land degradation, floods and forest fires.

We need to create a better sustainable future. To plant trees, protect existing forests and habitats for endangered species, recycle, reuse and only buy the things we need when it comes to plastic products and other non-biodegradable products that are filling landfills.

Just like trees give us food and shelter. So do the oceans. Most litter thrown on land goes into the seas and oceans polluting our waters, destroying important life like turtles, sharks and coral reefs.

We are the change that we seek. When we take care of nature. We take care of ourselves. It is important for our survival.”

Romario has been working to change the world, all from his home in Durban. If he can make this much change around the world, at the age of 10, imagine what kind of future he has in store. We cannot wait to see what he accomplishes next.


Sources: Porky’s People
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About the Author

Tyler Leigh Vivier is a writer for Good Things Guy.

Her passion is to spread good news across South Africa with a big focus on environmental issues, animal welfare and social upliftment. Outside of Good Things Guy, she is an avid reader and lover of tea.

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