Introduction From Rwamwanja BTVET

We are students from Rwamwanja BTVET Centre, Uganda. Our school is located in western Uganda and we are  about 250 students both male and female ,Refugees and host communities. We are studying hands on skills in different courses such as AVET (Agriculture Vocational Education Training), Hairdressing, Tailoring, Mechanics, Blacksmith and Sandal making plus Computer skills. Our school is within Rwamwanja refugee camp where climate change has become a big challenge to us and natives at large. The weather condition in this place has totally changed in this case, we have been receiving rainfall in early February but now we are receiving little in late March. This is a very big problem because the biggest percentage of Us rely on Agricultural activities. Now it is high time as young students to focus on climate change and its effects, so that we learn about climate in and what we can do to help mitigate its negative effects.

We are happy and excited to participate in this project because climate change affects our daily life regardless of everyone’s status of living.   We shall do whatever is possible to collect different stories on climate change and how it affects the people in the community, and there we shall come up with ideas on how we can control these negative effects of climate change.

Together with the community we can make the world a better place for mankind by creating a very strong awareness of our environment and controlling the activities that lead to negative climate change in the world.

Below are some of the negative effects of climate change that are affecting us as a community and individuals.

• Last year 2020, there was a shortage of rain and as a result, farmers’ crops were severely depleted, so food was very expensive,
• Farmers even now do not know the best time to plant crops, because the summer has changed its course,
• Cutting down trees for firewood reduces rainfall,
• Climate change leads to poor infrastructure development Such as roads, houses and hospitals, especially during rainy season,
• Climate have led to famine outbreak especially in mountainous area which have led to death of many peoples and animals leading to low population.

Students Discussing their Climate and Us Topics as a group after the first session of the project (Group One)

• 

Students Discussing their Climate and Us Topics as a group after the first session of the project (Group Two)

Introductory Video

Introduction from Kongo Junior High School

Today we can introduce students from Kongo Junior High School from Nabdam district in Ghana.

In this video students from Kongo JHS introduce themselves and share their ideas about climate change. In Kongo community the biggest problems caused by climate change are extreme heat, land degradation and unpredictable rainfall. As a result of bush burning and wood logging many trees in the area have been destroyed which makes the situation with climate change even more difficult.

Kongo JHS students had a great first workshop on climate change and are eager to learn more. 🙂

• 

• 

• 

• 

Climate change activities from a girls’ school in Afghanistan

In the spring of 2021 a girls school from Afghanistan also participated in “Climate Change and Us” project. It was very inspiring to see them learning about climate change and sharing their knowledge with their community.

The students feel that climate change is a highly important issue for them because extreme weather instances impact the lives of people living in the IDP camp very much. For example dirty lakes and water pollution around the school makes it difficult to get clean water. At the camp, burning coal in winter season for heating the rooms is a big problem for air quality and extreme weather and increasing temperatures in the summer are impacting the lives of people more and more.

The students in the group had their first sessions of Climate Change and Us project where they got to know more about the harmful effects of climate change. They are eager to learn more about it and start collecting stories from their community.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

As further activities the students organised a tree planting activity in their school, did a trash cleanup in their community and inspired other people in their community to care more about the environment and their health.

We want to congratulate these brave young girls for their courage and hard work. Well done!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Introduction: students from Tamsalu Gymnasium

We are students from Tamsalu Gymnasium, Estonia. Our school is located in northeastern Estonia and has about 400 students. We study global education where we learn about global problems including climate change. Our sister school is Eubere High School in Kenya. We have focused on climate change in our video and are interested in learning more about Kenya’s and other countries’ viewpoints on this subject. We believe that people should talk about climate change to make others aware of the severity of this issue. We must take care of our planet while we are still young and able to do so as we have to live here for the rest of our lives. We also have to protect the planet for the sake of younger generations who will live here one day. Everybody has the responsibility of keeping Earth alive.

Here is a short introduction video of us:

Climate Change and Us

Since the beginning of year 2021 we have been working hard to start the activities for our new school network project called “Climate Change and Us”. Young people from Estonia, Afghanistan, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and Ukraine will be looking into how climate change affects them and their communities. We will collect stories about climate change, learn about storytelling and video editing and share these stories with our peers from other countries. Learning about the effects of climate change on the world will help us take action against it together.

So let’s start learning and sharing what we know with others. We’re all excited to get to know each other better. 🙂

• 

• 

•