“The impacts of climate change are clear and present today. Adults create these problems, yet children are the ones most affected. Air pollution significantly impacts the health of children, especially those under five. Many children are suffering from these problems. Children still have a long future ahead of them. They will grow up and continue living on this planet for a long time. Is it time for everyone to come together to address the environmental problems?”
This is part of the reflections of 17-year-old Chairat from Chiang Mai, 17-year-old Tawan from Phangnga, 17-year-old Sasikarn from Buengkan and 18-year-old Tihusso from Kanchanaburi. The presence of these World Vision youth leaders, who join the World Vision East Asia’s Young Minds CAMP clearly explains why we need to prioritise child participation and give youth space to participate in everything that impacts their lives, as well as allow them to be part of their family, school, community, public services and drive policy change and law enforcement in collaboration with partnered organisations from the government, private sector and civil society.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) prioritises child inclusion. At World Vision, our work focuses on children. We strongly believe that child participation is vital in enabling the achievement of the most sustainable impacts because all children and youth have the potential to become changemakers. To foster them to realise their fullest potential, World Vision East Asia carries out Young Minds CAMP (Child-led Action, Mobilization and Partnerships) to build the capacity of young advocates from six countries in East Asia and Asia Pacific, including Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand. Throughout six months, the project will be carrying out online activities and on-site workshops in which children will be sharing knowledge and growing capacities to enhance their leadership skills and the capability to be the agents of change by driving issue-based global-level policy changes. A capacity-building workshop was conducted and joined by 17 young people from six countries in Bangkok in early June.
On this long journey to become changemakers, what have these young people learned? Let us hear what they have said about this transformative training.
Youth representatives from Mongolia shared what they felt: “Both of us are proud to be selected to attend Young Minds CAMP (YMC). In our country, the weather is very cold. We face climate change in the form of extreme coldness and disastrous floods. I am glad to meet my peers in East Asia. We learned a lot about many things, especially building leadership and self-confidence.”
What entails leadership that these young people have learned? A youth representative from Vietnam elaborated: “Leadership takes some key techniques, which include DAC: D-Direction, A-Alignment and C-Commitment. I have also gone through self-search to discover true values within myself and the values of the society and other people and how to map all of these values together to connect with everyone.”
Children and youth are energised by their creative ideas. To drive and create real change, especially for children’s rights, young people need to be equipped with research planning and analytical thinking so that their creativity will be grounded in a comprehensive set of factual data.
“Together, we will drive change. We must focus on goal-setting, identifying issues, gathering information using sound methods, including data collection, methodology, data analysis, prioritisation and developing action plans for change,” a youth representative from Cambodia added.
Adolescents joining the Young Minds CAMP project had an opportunity to present the issue of children’s rights arising from climate change and the impacts of child hunger during the ‘Luncheon Dialogue with the executives of international organisations for child development’, such as United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), World Food Programme (WFP), Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), International Organization for Migration (IOM), Scaling Up Nutrition Movement (SUN Movement), Child Rights Coalition Asia (CRC Asia), United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC).
“For children, high temperatures and strong sunlight make it impossible to engage in outdoor activities such as playing. This can adversely impact their development. Air pollution is another serious health threat for children, especially those under five, who are the most vulnerable and at-risk group. Climate change is causing seasonal fluctuations and reduced water availability, leaving children to drink unsafe water from polluted and contaminated rainwater. The impacts of climate change are clear and present today. Adults create these problems, yet children are the ones most affected. Many children are suffering from these problems. Children still have a long future ahead of them. They will grow up and continue living on this planet for a long time. Is it time for everyone to come together to address the environmental problems?” We must have serious law enforcement, a plan to cope with climate change, a measure to support vulnerable children, funds for youth capacity-building and child participation and support for children to take part in addressing the impacts of climate change which affect children’s rights.”
This is the voice of Chairat from Chiang Mai, Tawan from Phangnga, Sasikarn from Buenkan and Tihusso from Kanchanaburi, World Vision youth leaders from Thailand, who advocated with the executives of international organisations, along with their peers from five other countries.
The journey of young people to become changemakers through the Young Minds CAMP project led by World Vision East Asia has begun. We believe wholeheartedly that every child and youth will be transformed from within, and we will soon see these young leaders come together to create change for children, youth, communities, society, and our world.
