Unicef Climate Ambassadors In Mpikaby | 18-03-2015 21:37 |
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     Last year in September my colleagues trained a group of 27 young people in Trench town, Mpika District of Muchinga Province in Zambia. This was a part of the annual trainings initiated and sponsored by UNICEF Zambia and supported by Wildlife Environmental Conservation Society of Zambia (WECSZ) with other collaborating partners. The training took five days were my co-facilitator and I engaged young people to voice out on issues affecting them strictly following sessions we discussed issued to do with pollutions, environmental degradation, deforestation, HIV/AIDS, online safety etc. as per tradition in our trainings we encourage our delegates to speak freely before we can go into identifying the root cause of the problem so that we can find solutions easily. To each issue brought out we designed a work plan of how they were going to execute each and every activity in order to solve the problems their community face. The goal of these trainings is to raise and eco-generation especially in young people to preserve the next generation coming, the more aware this generation is the better chances of having a future endowed with mother nature to its fullest extent. They become Climate Ambassadors for their communities. In earlier conferences, we used to do a central training where we invite all delegates from all over Zambia to come to the capital city and go through this trainings but later on we identified the need for paying forward what they learned but it seemed the lack motivation from their travels back home the one syphoned from the conference will dissipate along with their tired bodies from the journey that's why we have made concerted effort to do one better and follow the children in their provinces that we can have a precise identification of the issues they are facing and how to solve them through best practice (lead by example) show them its possible through inspiration to motivate them, this way we establish growth. Since our training last year, the group in Mpika have since been dazzling the Unite4Climate Zambia community with knockout after knockout of wonderfully well-designed projects ranging from tree planting, community sensitization to hospital clean-up drives. This group of young people quickly revolutionized in a nickname called "Mpika Wind-Breakers" has since lived up to their name, they break the winds of climate injustice and I stand proud and awestruck to have been a part of the making of such a powerful group. There is a paradigm shift in Mpika and its name is Mpika Wind-Breakers! We are so proud of their work here in Zambia and I saw it worthy to share their benevolence and hard work for the environment. These children deserve a global applause and recognition. Do well to check them out on facebook, they have an account by their nickname.
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