Sekagya Abdulrazaq is a youth representative from the Uganda Red Cross Society.
Here he talks about Y-Adapt – a programme supported by the International Red Cross Red Crescent Societies and Plan International, among others, to develop fun, playful curricula that both educates about climat change and prompts action.
Sekagya Abdulrazaq
Y-Adapt is an innovative games-based curriculum, that inspires and engages young people to get involved, to develop and implement their own climate change adaptation actions, and advocacy plans in their communities.
Climate change education is key to addressing the climate crisis, and with Y-Adapt, young people get to understand the intensity of climate change, and its negative impacts – and what needs to be done to ensure that parents and teachers are better prepared for climate crisis.
The question to myself, and to those watching, is: ‘if the wheel is not broken, why fix it?’ Education is one way we still need to look at in order to solve the climate crisis. And how effective is it? According to one UNICEF publication, and I quote: “education can encourage people to change their attitudes and behaviour, it also helps them to make informed decisions.” And education empowers all people, but especially motivates them to want to take action.
And how do we actively prevent disruptions to learning due to climate change? We all know that climate change is happening, and unless we take mitigation and adaptation actions, the world is set to face its worst disasters – which is already happening in certain parts of the world. Governments and their development partners should emphasise and look into the three major points that I’m about to identify:
One is that we need to adopt and embrace technology. We all know that technology can be used as a tool to reach out to different people, to disseminate to them information about climate change and how they can take action.
Two is that we need to fund and implement evidence-based climate-resilient climate solutions. An example is the Y-Adapt curriculum, which motivates young people to take actions in their local communities. Thirdly, we need to invest in early warning systems and anticipatory actions.