New Delhi, August 12, 2008: As the world celebrates International Youth Day, WWF-India reinforces its commitment to the cause of Climate Change – this years' theme of the Day – and youth by reaching out through several programmes and activities that were organized across the country.
International Youth Day is a political day designated by the United Nations. As with other political awareness days, the purpose of the day is to draw attention to a given set of cultural and legal issues surrounding an endangered demographic. It was designated by the United Nations in 1999. It is meant as an opportunity for governments and others to draw attention to youth issues worldwide. Concerts, workshops, cultural events, and meetings involving national and local government officials and youth organizations take place around the world in honor of International Youth Day
Mr. Ravi Singh, Secretary General and CEO, WWF-India, said, "Climate issues have assumed centrestage of discussions and negotiations globally and its impacts are proven and visible." He added, "It is important for young people to come forward and contribute more in terms of spreading awareness on climate issues."
Some of the youth-centric activities that WWF-India is a part of are profiled below:
Celebrations at WWF-India Secretariat
A special film screening and interactive session for college students was organized with Climate experts from WWF-India. Students from leading colleges of Delhi University took part in the proceedings and pledged to become "Climate Ambassadors".
Young Climate Savers
WWF in partnership with Tetra Pak launched a student orientation programme called the Young Climate Savers last year. The mandate of these workshops is to sensitize hundreds and thousands of school and college students on Climate Change. The programme aims at covering 200 schools from across ten cities in India and the schools were selected based on their high resource consumption levels at the school, student and parent level. The ten cities include Dehra Dun, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar and Kolkata. Students' workshops have been organized in all these schools followed by an interschool competition and field visits.
The Young Climate Savers project identified key teachers in selected schools and carried out capacity building programmes for them on technology based environmental education and education for sustainable development with specific focus on climate change. The teachers were provided with an exhaustive Resource Material titled, 'Teachers' Manual on Climate Change. The manual provides a detailed understanding on the history, science and impacts of climate change. The last few chapters also discuss the various adaptation response and mitigation measures that are being taken up and also has hands on activities that children can take up to understand the issue of climate change better. Care was taken to integrate the project as a process in the main curriculum so as to become an ongoing activity even after the completion of the project period.
International Polar Year
Through yet another outreach activity - the International Polar Year - WWF-India has reached out to more than 1200 schools on the issue of Climate Change. This outreach was a part of the International Polar Year celebrations that were organized with Ministry of Earth Sciences.
Through teachers the project aimed to target students in major cities of India to create technology based knowledge and awareness to set right attitudes among them which will lead to suitable actions to mitigate the impacts of climate change. Activities like demonstrations, hands on experiments, small projects, cross learning through networking will make the students participate in the project enthusiastically.
Commonwealth Youth Baton Relay
Another interesting intervention of WWF-India around youth is participation in the Commonwealth Youth Baton Relay that was flagged off from New Delhi on August 1, 2008. WWF-India's Signature Campaign - Roar of the Tiger - is an integral part of this relay which will cover 199 town and cities in its 73-day journey to Pune where the Commonwealth Youth Games will start in mid-October.
For more information, please contact:
Anshuman Atroley, Communications Manager, WWF-India
Tel: +91-98101 69262, E-mail: aatroley@gmail.com
International Youth Day is a political day designated by the United Nations. As with other political awareness days, the purpose of the day is to draw attention to a given set of cultural and legal issues surrounding an endangered demographic. It was designated by the United Nations in 1999. It is meant as an opportunity for governments and others to draw attention to youth issues worldwide. Concerts, workshops, cultural events, and meetings involving national and local government officials and youth organizations take place around the world in honor of International Youth Day
Mr. Ravi Singh, Secretary General and CEO, WWF-India, said, "Climate issues have assumed centrestage of discussions and negotiations globally and its impacts are proven and visible." He added, "It is important for young people to come forward and contribute more in terms of spreading awareness on climate issues."
Some of the youth-centric activities that WWF-India is a part of are profiled below:
Celebrations at WWF-India Secretariat
A special film screening and interactive session for college students was organized with Climate experts from WWF-India. Students from leading colleges of Delhi University took part in the proceedings and pledged to become "Climate Ambassadors".
Young Climate Savers
WWF in partnership with Tetra Pak launched a student orientation programme called the Young Climate Savers last year. The mandate of these workshops is to sensitize hundreds and thousands of school and college students on Climate Change. The programme aims at covering 200 schools from across ten cities in India and the schools were selected based on their high resource consumption levels at the school, student and parent level. The ten cities include Dehra Dun, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar and Kolkata. Students' workshops have been organized in all these schools followed by an interschool competition and field visits.
The Young Climate Savers project identified key teachers in selected schools and carried out capacity building programmes for them on technology based environmental education and education for sustainable development with specific focus on climate change. The teachers were provided with an exhaustive Resource Material titled, 'Teachers' Manual on Climate Change. The manual provides a detailed understanding on the history, science and impacts of climate change. The last few chapters also discuss the various adaptation response and mitigation measures that are being taken up and also has hands on activities that children can take up to understand the issue of climate change better. Care was taken to integrate the project as a process in the main curriculum so as to become an ongoing activity even after the completion of the project period.
International Polar Year
Through yet another outreach activity - the International Polar Year - WWF-India has reached out to more than 1200 schools on the issue of Climate Change. This outreach was a part of the International Polar Year celebrations that were organized with Ministry of Earth Sciences.
Through teachers the project aimed to target students in major cities of India to create technology based knowledge and awareness to set right attitudes among them which will lead to suitable actions to mitigate the impacts of climate change. Activities like demonstrations, hands on experiments, small projects, cross learning through networking will make the students participate in the project enthusiastically.
Commonwealth Youth Baton Relay
Another interesting intervention of WWF-India around youth is participation in the Commonwealth Youth Baton Relay that was flagged off from New Delhi on August 1, 2008. WWF-India's Signature Campaign - Roar of the Tiger - is an integral part of this relay which will cover 199 town and cities in its 73-day journey to Pune where the Commonwealth Youth Games will start in mid-October.
For more information, please contact:
Anshuman Atroley, Communications Manager, WWF-India
Tel: +91-98101 69262, E-mail: aatroley@gmail.com