Pupils from Abraham Moss in Manchester make their voices heard
Earlier this month, Oxfam North West hosted its first Active Global Citizenship conference for young people. For me, the event was the culmination of weeks of preparation - from recruiting schools and sending out delegate packs, to buying mountains of fair trade chocolate for the goody bags, and building a mailbox for students send postcards to Gordon Brown. The day was a huge success, and by the end my mailbox was stuffed full of impassioned messages on climate change.
Elvis Sukali speaking at Here and Now conference in Manchester
The day kicked off with an inspirational presentation from Elvis Sukali, an Oxfam Project Officer from Malawi who has worked with the victims of climate change. It was the first time I had heard an Oxfam Project Officer speak, and it really brought home the direct correlation between our actions and the effect on people in developing countries. On a more positive note, he also showcased the brilliant work Oxfam and its partners are doing in countries like Malawi, and the huge difference it’s already making.
Highlights of the day included a visit from a life-sized polar bear reminding us of the need to save humans too, students getting their faces painted blue, and the chance to question Rebecca Gowland, head of Oxfam’s ‘Here and Now’ climate change campaign. It was great to see students really engaging with complex issues and the sense of empowerment this gave them. By the end of the day they had channelled all this learning and enthusiasm into an action plan to take back to their school, containing their ideas on how to campaign for climate justice within their community.
And now, back to the office to process the mountain of (positive, hopefully!) feedback forms submitted by the schools, but for the students, it’s the first step on their journey of learning and action on climate change, and its really exciting to know that they are already spreading awareness in their schools and communities. Manchester School conference video
Tags: Add new tag, climate change, global citizenship
This entry was posted by Liz Fitzpatrick on November 3rd, 2009 at 3:57 pm and is filed under
Oxfam North West, The Village - Oxfam for young people,
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
