Amidst reports that children mostly bear the brunt of impact of climate change, Save The Children International, has launched Generation Hope campaign to create awareness on the impact of climate change in Nigeria.
The child-led advocacy and campaign initiative will use different approaches to bring the messages to the grassroots on how climate change is greatly affecting the survival, learning and development of children.
The Acting Country Director, Save the Children Nigeria, Amanuel Mamo, during the launch of the campaign in Abuja, stated that the organization believed that the climate and inequality crisis are risk multiplier, eroding children and communities resilience to shocks.
He stated that If it is not urgently addressed, the frequency and severity of humanitarian and cost of living crises may continue to increase in the years ahead, hence the need to take pragmatic actions to create the necessary awareness among people aimed at changing the behaviour and practice that heighten the effect of climate change.
Mamo who is also the director of Advocacy, Campaigns, Communication and Media (SCI) said: “The climate crisis is a child rights crisis. It is a concern for children’s survival, development, learning, protection, and other rights.
“We cannot talk about achieving the Sustainable Development Goals or claiming to be making progress in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child until we address the issues of climate change as it has a direct link to poverty, hunger, education, protection, access to good health among others.”
He said that to achieve positive results, children must be carried along in all actions and approaches we take towards the fight against climate change even though they contribute little or nothing to the causes of climate change.
The Advocacy and Campaign Manager for Survivive, Ifedili- Chukwu Innocent, stated that the campaign was being launched to safeguard children from the ripple effect of climate change , saying although Children contribute less to causes of climate change but they suffer more.
He said: “The launch of the campaign is to recognize that the activities of elders are now leading to issues and challenges children are facing. So we are launching the campaign for government, traditional rulers, religious leaders to recognize the actions that needs to be taken.
While calling for need to recycle waste products plant trees to reduce impact of climate change, Ifedili-Chukwu said government need to put in place policies that will encourage tree planting including funding that will enable such actions to take place.
The Deputy Speaker of the Children’s parliament , Rt Honorable Ibrahim Zinna Sumamu, said Generation Hope is campaign to create a better society for children, saying climate change is real and it’s happening now and it’s affecting our planet. If well implemented, the the campaign program with tackle all this issues.
He called on government and relevant stakeholders to join hands in funding the campaign saying “we want government to take the lead and carry children along in efforts to stop climate change especially planting of trees.
“We also want to see that government is taking good measures to mitigate impact of climate change to prevent and must always be ready for emergencies.”
The Deputy Speaker however commended SCI for taking along the children and puting children at the Frontline of the campaign lamenting that children are always at the receiving end of calamities due to their vulnerability. This is an opportunity for children to raise their voices so that they will be heard.
