Youths take ACTION - Battle against Climate Change (1)
July 4, 2008 in Church, Life, LWF, Youth, Youth participation
I guess you have already read about the youth message on climate change - http://lwfyouth.org/2008/06/28/a-call-to-engage-climate-change/ - which was presented in the LWF Council Meeting during the opening hearing of climate change.
In the coming days, I am going to share with you all the stories I have heard from the participants of the Pre-Council Youth Workshop. Since there are too many stories, they will come one by one in a series.
Let’s begin with our youngest participant of the workshop - Hanitriniaina Nathalie Rahelimalala (We call her Nathalie), 19, a young lady from Malagasy Lutheran Church.
Nathalie is a university student studying Marketing and Banking. She lives with her parents and younger brother in Antananarivo, the capital of Madagarscar.
‘The situation in my country is that people do not know much about climate change. Some of them burn trees in order to create farmland or mistakenly think that it would make the land fertile. They don’t know it will contribute to climate change’, said Nathalie.
Nathalie has set 2 goals for herself for the next half of this year.
(1) Write a song carrying message about climate change.
(2) Plant Trees with her classmates in a Lutheran school where she learns English.
Nathalie, the youngest participant from Malagasy Lutheran Church, performed a funny move during an activity in the Pre Council Youth Workshop, held in Cannossa Spirtuality Center in the countryside of Arusha.
She and her friends in a youth group have been working on a Music CD Album for some time. Now, Nathalie’s plan is to add a song carrying the message about climate change. ’We gonna to promote this song to the radio and TV, and we’ll organize a free music show…..so that people will know about the causes and solutions of climate change’.
She is optimistic that using music is an effective way to spread the message on climate change ’ Malagasy people just like singing and listening to Music. I mean, they like it very much!’
Apart from the song (which all of us in the Pre-Council Workshop have been looking forward to listening to. Perhaps we can upload it here when it is done), Nathalie said she is going to organize a youth group to plant trees. ‘We have a Lutheran school in Antananarivo. Many students take courses like English and Computer Studies there. I am going to organize a group in my English Club to plant trees in the campus’.
I think it is so far for today. The next story will bring you to Central African Republic- stories about a 23 year old young man, Evariste Mamadou.
