By Kyle Tsukahira
Back in September 2018 APIFM Program Manager Kyle Tsukahira had the opportunity to travel to Taiwan in order to facilitate an series of air quality workshops for students from Wu Ling High School in Taoyuan City and 15 teachers from different schools around Taiwan who are participating in Taiwan’s Ecocampus program.
The workshops focused on educating, engaging, and empowering both the Taiwanese students and teachers about the impacts of air pollution and ways they can advocate for sustainable change in their communities. Kyle also had the opportunity to meet with the principal and other school administrators of Wu Ling in order to discuss the possibility of connecting some of their students with the students we are working with in Los Angeles.
A group of high school boys from Wu Ling High School in Taoyuan City using an air beam sensor to measure the level of particulate matter next to a major roadway in front of their school.
The goal of this partnership would be to have the students interact with one another and learn about the local air quality issues they are dealing with in their communities as well as the steps each group is taking to address these issues. APIFM is currently in contact with Wu Ling in order to facilitate this connection. This trip was made possible thanks to funding from the International Environmental Partnership (IEP) which is a joint partnership between the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) and the Environmental Protection Administration of Taiwan (EPAT).
APIFM Hosting former Minister Wei Kuo-Yen of the Environmental Protection Administration of Taiwan at Mark Keppel High School in Monterey Park in 2014.
Since 2013, APIFM has been working with local high school youth in the San Gabriel Valley to educate them about the impacts of air pollution and empower them to advocate for the changes they want to see take place in their schools and communities. Since 2017, APIFM has successfully installed 50 purple air sensors in the cities of Monterey Park and Alhambra in order to get real time localized air quality data.
APIFM is working to get an additional 65 purple air sensors installed by the end of 2019 in more locations throughout both participating cities. This is one of the largest long-term, localized air sensor projects in the country! APIFM is embarking on a 2-year project entitled, “#CleanAirSGV,” in order to conduct a full series of community education workshops about air quality as well as form local community-based clean air coalitions that can advocate to mitigate and improve air quality. To find out more information or to get involved, please contact Kyle at kyle@apifm.org or visit us on the web at www.apifm.org.
