Climate Activist in the Caribbean

The Climate Program seeks to educate, raise awareness and mobilize people to take action. It offers a practical solution to building greater resilience into vulnerable communities by implementing actions to protect the natural resources that they depend on. Since the start of the program forty (50) people from St. Vincent along with eighty (100) volunteers from all over the World have educated themselves in Climate Compliance – specifically in the effects on small island nations – and have taken practical action such as planting 25 000 trees and removing 20 tons of trash from rivers, beaches and communities.
A small group of teachers and students from Richmond Vale Academy (RVA) work together with a big group of Vincentians to make  the island and people ready for climate change.
This has been the aim and the result at every action ranging from the first Beach cleanup in March 2012 to getting people’s houses cleaned up after the flooding December 2013, restoring the water pipe line in North Leeward and planting trees with hundreds of children and farmers.
RVA has aimed at educating and inform about Climate Change issues, Biodiversity to a broad audience from children age 4 to adults. RVA has done this in every possible way – by face to face presentations in schools, organizations, community groups as well as through TV, Radio and Newspapers. RVA has consistently been present in the public Media and has also produced newspapers which RVA spreads all over the Islands about Tree planting, Climate Change etc.
This has all increased the awareness about climate change issues and biodiversity and through the actions done in the community RVA built a strong network and created strong partnerships with Government officials, organizations, businesses and private people.
RVA has developed the capacity within the staff and the volunteers attending the programs. The collective staff has a high accumulated experience in project planning and management in different countries.
The volunteers taking part in the Climate Compliance Program come from all over the World with different ages and background ranging environmental engineers, lawyers, carpenters, students taking a gab year etc.
They are a decisive corner stone in making this work – from the actual implementing power to the mobilization and example for the community to follow.

The Volunteers join a team for 1-6 months. They want to make a difference when it comes to eradicating poverty because they believe Poverty and Global Warming is closely connected and they want to be part of creating an example for the World to see – “A country that is ready for Climate Change”. The program is all about building their theoretical and practical capacity to enable them to do just that.

Tagged as: climate change, permaculture, sustainable