Mediation: Growing Up In A Community

Definition: According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, mediation is the intervention between confliction parties to promote reconciliation, settlement or compromise.
Mediation is a good way to solve minor issues of environmental concerns that could come up in a community or small group due to the difference in opinions or expectations of Individuals in that group. In the world today, many individuals have different views on what is an acceptable standard for a healthy and clean environment. In a community, conflicts are bound to arise when the residents of that community have opposing opinions and expectation of wellbeing of their surroundings. For instance, an individual who is not concerned with germs and microorganisms may agree that a table is clean if there is no visible dirt on it. Whereas, a person who is concerned with germs does not consider a table clean unless it is spotless and wiped with a quality disinfectant.

Growing up in a developing country like Nigeria, I lived in a community where people of different social classes could live together in the same region or community. As a result, the residents of my community had varying perspectives on the priority of having a clean and healthy environment. I observed that the more educated people were more conserved for the wellbeing of the environment and where willing to pay the price for having a sanitary community. Because of the difference in opinions and environmental health expectations, many issues came up in my community. To address these issues, the community held a monthly meeting to discuss how to maintain a reasonably clean environment and give updates on the standard of our environmental