Global Climate Change and The Young Brigade – Understanding climate change from children’s perspectives
Kolkata : Climate change poses a great threat to the wellbeing of future generations. Children are key stakeholders for their future. A team of public health scientists from Johns Hopkins University and the Child In Need Institute (CINI) NGO are organizing a unique campaign, a thought and art workshop on 12th and 13th of January 2023 at the onset of National Youth Day, to highlight children’s perceptions of climate change impacts and solutions.
On the occasion of National Youth Day, Child In Need Institute (CINI) NGO organized a unique rally from Kolkata to Kultali with the children under the theme ‘What Children Want’ to create awareness about Climate Change. Children in Green vehicles decorated with plants, grass thatched roofs, posters, banners, and educative display materials communicating the issue of interest left for Kultali from Kolkata to raise awareness about climate change.
The rally was equipped with Informative Educative Communication materials in form of posters, danglers and handouts arranged and organised by CINI to facilitate the interactive sessions and incite analytical repertoire on the subject of climate change and its effects on day to day life.
Upon reaching Kultali the young brigade met the local congregation of 20 young children and teenagers resident in the Sundarbans area, who are active members of the local district child parliaments, were invited to express their perceptions about climate change through art around two themes, “Mother Earth is sick. Are we the virus?” and “We don’t have a Planet B”.
Their narratives and artwork will be compiled into a book to disseminate their ideas to the world. Art is a powerful way of developing meaningful engagement with climate change that has transformative potential for the creator as well as the consumer.
The primary target shall be to bring about two thousand children into the periphery of the interactive sessions and activities. This would be achieved as each child involved interacts with his / her peer group to get at least five of the friends interested which again through a repeat process builds up a network interested young minds in the arena of Environmental awareness. The above has also the potential to act as aBridge between geo-ethnic-economic and social divide, basing on a common and global platform of environmental change and effects thereof.
Child In Need Institute shall escalate these awareness programs and suggested issues and/ or demands further through Local, State level and National level Government agencies to establish the representation on a Global platform and to ensure participation in the movement for a paradigm shift in consciousness towards a greener and safer Earth.