Anniversary
8 years ago
Showing posts with label Youth for Eco-Justice travelogue. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Youth for Eco-Justice travelogue. Show all posts
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Youth for Eco-Justice Day 15
And just like that this incredible experience is over and I'm on my way home. I'm sad, but I have a lot of work to do back in Perth launching the Five Leaf Eco-Awards and my new Churches for Conservation project so I suppose I won't have too much time to miss everyone. Besides, I don't believe this is the end. I'm looking forward to continuing to work with my new friends around this world to try and bring some of the hope and light of our faith into our future.
Friday, December 9, 2011
Final night party
From left: Claire (Aus), Tamar (Georgia), Claire (UK) and me
Njideka and I
Youth for Eco-Justice Day 14
Today we completed our presentations, completed a recap, wrote each other a bunch of nice letters and then had a final night party. Having trouble believing that I have to go home and leave all my new friends.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Youth for Eco-Justice Day 13
Today we continued our project planning and started presenting our projects to each other. It was really interesting and inspiring to hear what everyone is going to do. We also held a Market of Ideas/Projects for those of us who were already doing things to tell the others about.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Youth for Eco-Justice Day 12
Today some friends and I left our lodgings early and headed to the Victoria markets to finish shopping for family and friends. We had heard that the markets could be a little dodgy so I was a bit wary, but we were early enough that there were few people there and it was lovely and cheap compared to other places. I had fun picking out a bunch of presents made from the beautiful beadwork and phone wire sculpting that they do in this area.
Then we headed down to the beach for 'Africa Roars'. This was a protest involving hundreds of school children making the shape of a roaring lion on the beach to protest the lack of action on Climate Change. A nice idea. In practice though, I soon had some qualms.
Durban gets hot. Really hot. Those poor kids had to sit on burning sand (it was making me yelp every time I had to walk somewhere) in the sun for something like 3 hours without enough water and apparently many hadn't eaten yet. My friends and I were taking refuge in the shade of what seemed to be an empty tent when suddenly fainting children started flooding in and we realised it was a medical tent. We hastily exited, watching the medic shake his head in frustration.
It made me really angry. These poor kids had to suffer (they kept being begged to be brave, but they are children, they shouldn't have to be brave!) because the stupid adults a few kms away in the big, fancy, airconditioned buildings didn't have the guts to do what needs to be done. I don't know what to feel but disgust.
PS. It does look really cool though doesn't it?
Then we headed down to the beach for 'Africa Roars'. This was a protest involving hundreds of school children making the shape of a roaring lion on the beach to protest the lack of action on Climate Change. A nice idea. In practice though, I soon had some qualms.
Durban gets hot. Really hot. Those poor kids had to sit on burning sand (it was making me yelp every time I had to walk somewhere) in the sun for something like 3 hours without enough water and apparently many hadn't eaten yet. My friends and I were taking refuge in the shade of what seemed to be an empty tent when suddenly fainting children started flooding in and we realised it was a medical tent. We hastily exited, watching the medic shake his head in frustration.
It made me really angry. These poor kids had to suffer (they kept being begged to be brave, but they are children, they shouldn't have to be brave!) because the stupid adults a few kms away in the big, fancy, airconditioned buildings didn't have the guts to do what needs to be done. I don't know what to feel but disgust.
PS. It does look really cool though doesn't it?
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Youth for Eco-Justice Day 11
Today we began to plan our projects for when we return home. We talked about goal setting and drafting our project plan.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Youth for Eco-Justice Day 10
Today was the first of our 'immersion days' participating in the civil society events around COP17. So I headed to the Diakonia Centre with some friends for some events there.
The first event was a panel related to women and development. This was made exciting by the presence of Ghandi's granddaughter.
Notes:
- Many women are forced to marry men because they can't look after themselves (water drawing, keeping house etc.) so they force you girls to live with them.
- If women get sick or need help they encourage their husbands to take another woman - increased AIDs risk
- Ancient oak trees in Texas are collapsing from excessive heat.
- "After 2020 it won't matter anymore because we will all be burnt."
I snuck out of the meeting at 10:30 (getting within a metre of Ghandi's granddaughter who also had to leave to attend another event), and headed to another meeting hosted by the South African Faith Communities Environment Institute (SAFCEI). Here I met Gleynis Goynes, one of the founding members of the group, and we had a wonderful chat about the organisation.
SAFCEI was launched in 2005 with a week long meeting of representatives from all the major faith groups in South Africa. They then formed a representative steering committee and had their first AGM. SAFCEI is driven by Bishop Geoff Davies and his wife Kate, who also heads up Eco-Congregation in South Africa and is doing a masters on environmental education in the faith structure. This program is based on the UK model but adapted to this context.
One challenge was that the poor illeterates in SA are often close to the earth byt they don't necessarily understand the significance of sustainable management. Eco-Congregation SA tried giving churches a handbook but found that most people couldn't read it and it gave a lot of power to whoever held the book, so instead they developed a poster for use by rural people which requires them to only read a sentance at a time maximum.
They have found that the grassroots work has not spread as well as they would like.
They have some urban clusters, each of which has grown around something that was contextually significant for them. For example the Jo'berg cluster is interested in consumerism.
They usually operate top down through advocacy and lobbying but next year plan to focus on bottom up and particularly Eco-Congregation which they want to spread from SA out into southern Africa.
They also have 14 Christian and Muslim Youth Ambassadors. These completed two training workshops and are working as volunteers to raise awareness in their local communities around COP17. They were also delegates to the negotiations and staff the SAFCEI stands.
This has been so successful they want to make the Youth Ambassadors a seperate permanent program.
I got to meet two of these ambassadors - Cindy from Durban and Patrick from a rural area. Cindy became interested in environmental issues when the community newsletter she was writing for asked her to do some articles about them and Patrick had been involved in environmental things since primary school and this was a big part of his rural life. We discussed the difference between their two contexts, with urban congregations often having less youth and being less vibrant than their rural counterparts who are also more intrinsically involved in environmental issues.
There is a Muslim community in the Western Cape that is planting trees, recycling cooking oil and recycling waste.
We also discussed how a lot of indigenous knowledge has been lost in South Africa so it is necessary to learn what to plant where because Apartheid prevented the knowledge exchange that other African countries often had.
The final session I attended today related to why faith groups should get involved in negotiations like COP17.
Notes:
- Nations are currently challenged to defend self interest and think of the global good. Faiths are used to thinking about the global good.
- The Rio Declaration idea of sustainable development was developed by the Peace, Justice and Creation meeting in LA first.
- Otherwise the WCC doesn't have a lot to show for the last 30 years of engagement
- The majority of SA's 16 million Christians are impoverished.
- Conservative/prosperity/consumerist theology is creeping into faiths other than Christianity
- faith = librating the self from injust systems etc.
- Self interest is so powerful that the UN seems to be dying
- Indigenous and faith movements can join as moral movements for change
- Rio+20 is a blank slate we could use to bring about paradigm changes
- Rural people all know the effects of Climate Change, if not the science
- Faith communities have the opportunity to represent and mobilise faith communities because we are present in every town or village.
- Japan is the number 1 importer of ivory from endangered elephants in the Congo basin
- Lots of countries have good environmental legislation but they don't implement it.
This was a great day and I learned a lot.
To look up: Wangari Mathai, who won a nobel prize for environmental work in Kenya.
The first event was a panel related to women and development. This was made exciting by the presence of Ghandi's granddaughter.
Notes:
- Many women are forced to marry men because they can't look after themselves (water drawing, keeping house etc.) so they force you girls to live with them.
- If women get sick or need help they encourage their husbands to take another woman - increased AIDs risk
- Ancient oak trees in Texas are collapsing from excessive heat.
- "After 2020 it won't matter anymore because we will all be burnt."
I snuck out of the meeting at 10:30 (getting within a metre of Ghandi's granddaughter who also had to leave to attend another event), and headed to another meeting hosted by the South African Faith Communities Environment Institute (SAFCEI). Here I met Gleynis Goynes, one of the founding members of the group, and we had a wonderful chat about the organisation.
SAFCEI was launched in 2005 with a week long meeting of representatives from all the major faith groups in South Africa. They then formed a representative steering committee and had their first AGM. SAFCEI is driven by Bishop Geoff Davies and his wife Kate, who also heads up Eco-Congregation in South Africa and is doing a masters on environmental education in the faith structure. This program is based on the UK model but adapted to this context.
One challenge was that the poor illeterates in SA are often close to the earth byt they don't necessarily understand the significance of sustainable management. Eco-Congregation SA tried giving churches a handbook but found that most people couldn't read it and it gave a lot of power to whoever held the book, so instead they developed a poster for use by rural people which requires them to only read a sentance at a time maximum.
They have found that the grassroots work has not spread as well as they would like.
They have some urban clusters, each of which has grown around something that was contextually significant for them. For example the Jo'berg cluster is interested in consumerism.
They usually operate top down through advocacy and lobbying but next year plan to focus on bottom up and particularly Eco-Congregation which they want to spread from SA out into southern Africa.
They also have 14 Christian and Muslim Youth Ambassadors. These completed two training workshops and are working as volunteers to raise awareness in their local communities around COP17. They were also delegates to the negotiations and staff the SAFCEI stands.
This has been so successful they want to make the Youth Ambassadors a seperate permanent program.
I got to meet two of these ambassadors - Cindy from Durban and Patrick from a rural area. Cindy became interested in environmental issues when the community newsletter she was writing for asked her to do some articles about them and Patrick had been involved in environmental things since primary school and this was a big part of his rural life. We discussed the difference between their two contexts, with urban congregations often having less youth and being less vibrant than their rural counterparts who are also more intrinsically involved in environmental issues.
There is a Muslim community in the Western Cape that is planting trees, recycling cooking oil and recycling waste.
We also discussed how a lot of indigenous knowledge has been lost in South Africa so it is necessary to learn what to plant where because Apartheid prevented the knowledge exchange that other African countries often had.
The final session I attended today related to why faith groups should get involved in negotiations like COP17.
Notes:
- Nations are currently challenged to defend self interest and think of the global good. Faiths are used to thinking about the global good.
- The Rio Declaration idea of sustainable development was developed by the Peace, Justice and Creation meeting in LA first.
- Otherwise the WCC doesn't have a lot to show for the last 30 years of engagement
- The majority of SA's 16 million Christians are impoverished.
- Conservative/prosperity/consumerist theology is creeping into faiths other than Christianity
- faith = librating the self from injust systems etc.
- Self interest is so powerful that the UN seems to be dying
- Indigenous and faith movements can join as moral movements for change
- Rio+20 is a blank slate we could use to bring about paradigm changes
- Rural people all know the effects of Climate Change, if not the science
- Faith communities have the opportunity to represent and mobilise faith communities because we are present in every town or village.
- Japan is the number 1 importer of ivory from endangered elephants in the Congo basin
- Lots of countries have good environmental legislation but they don't implement it.
This was a great day and I learned a lot.
To look up: Wangari Mathai, who won a nobel prize for environmental work in Kenya.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
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