Kat met up with organisers of the Climate Justice Caravan at the UN in Durban this week. Check out their incredible story – from pythons on the road to the devastating impacts of drought.
Today I was fortunate to meet with three young and energetic climate leaders – Alpha and Josh from Kenya, and Mathews from Zambia. They are volunteers with the African Youth Initiative on Climate Change (AYICC) and helped organise and participated in the We Have Faith: Act Now for Climate Justice Caravan.
The story of the Caravan is truly inspiring. 161 young people from 17 different countries travelled across the African continent to educate, inspire and mobilise young people to take action on climate change.
The organisers were inspired by the Indian Youth Climate Network, who travelled across their country in 2009 with a similar goal. The young African organisers thought they could create a similar Climate Caravan, to begin in Nairobi, Kenya and end up in Durban, South Africa for the start of UN climate talks.
Alpha, Josh and Mathews packed only the necessities and left their jobs and studies behind. Their trip took 17 days and the group filled 6 trucks. They stopped at communities in Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa picking up other young people along the way. They held over 10 concerts, one filmed live and broadcast on television, performing music, dancing and telling stories of climate impacts from their home countries.
They also had thousands of conversations about climate change in local communities, collecting petition signatures for a fair, ambitious and binding climate deal. Through direct engagement and media along the way, it is estimated they connected with over 3 million Africans.
Mathews told me about challenges they faced en route to Durban – pythons hissed around their necks at night and rain flooded their tents. All their belongings were drenched and they had to sleep in the trucks on several nights. Despite this, what they saw on their travels motivated them to persist with the journey. They encountered communities that were directly impacted by the effects of climate change – people lacking access to fresh water or enough food.
Alpha also spoke about the African continent’s vulnerability to the effects of climate change. He explained that people from countries like Somalia in the Horn of Africa have suffered extreme famine as a result of crop failure. They have been forced to leave their homes and stay Kenyan refugee camps, sometime over 2 000 people arrive in one day. These people are climate refugees.
Josh told me about an expression from his language, “chaffua”, which translates to “spoil it, make a difference”. He explained that it means you should not sit down and accept the problem of climate change, but break out of your comfort zone and create change. He felt that all young people were powerful change agents.
This sentiment was echoed by Alpha, who was driven to join the caravan because he believes that climate change is too urgent a problem to wait until tomorrow to act. He put leisure and comfort behind to elevate the voice of young people in the climate debate.
While speaking to these young people, I found they had something important in common. That is the hope they have for Africa and for a safe climate future. What unites them is the committed they have to translating that hope into reality.
Their hope and commitment is shared by the hundreds of young people from over 50 countries here at the UN climate talks. They are optimistic and strong willed, which is truly unique in this international forum, where negotiators can be negative and progress slow. Young people across the world really do have a positive vision for their future – a safe climate.
The young people I have met are not naive, they know that protecting our future is not going to be easy. That is why they are committed to building a movement powerful enough to solve climate change.
Alpha, Josh and Mathews have made incredible friends on their journey, both on the Caravan and here in Durban. They hope these relationships continue to build the movement in Africa and internationally. They remind us all that we are capable of incredible things. Things like solving climate change.
