“Don’t use your hairdryers!” ‒ Our young climate bloggers’ training weekend
Young climate bloggers from St James’ Catholic High School tell the story of their CAFOD training weekend ‒ the fun, the challenges and the inspiration.
“Don’t use your hairdryers …” was one of the first pieces of advice we were given on arrival at the Othona Community in Bradwell on Sea “Hairdryers use more electricity than all the ovens, lights, fridges and freezers in our community joined together. If you use a hairdryer it could overload the system.” As the Orthona Community was off the main grid, frizzy hair it was to be. This was the first of many lessons learnt whilst experiencing sustainable living. The hard work and fun was about to begin.
Keep up with the CAFOD young climate bloggers during 2015.
After settling in, our first activity was to trial a new CAFOD game. The aim of the game was to make certain items, whilst experiencing the challenges faced by different countries around the world. We thought that it was a great game as it was fun, and we began to understand the obstacles preventing some people from making a living. I hated when the radio broadcast went off … it usually meant trouble ahead! Our first video gives you a glimpse of the game.
Check out the St James’ blog and watch their videos of their training weekend.
Day two started with a Skype call to Bangladesh. After a few attempts to connect, we asked Mowdudur Rahman questions to find out what impact climate change was having on this part of the world and what their needs were. More cyclone shelters was the answer. It was amazing to hear from someone there, working in partnership with CAFOD.
The morning ended with an inspirational talk from Louisa Casson (UKYCC). She showed us a video of a Canadian 12 year old who silenced the Rio Climate change conference by speaking from the heart. This clip inspired us to go for it.
As well as telling us about the power of the youth voice, Louisa challenged us to think about what we would be doing in 2050. I would be 63 – ahhhh! It is a scary thought.
Jack Regan launched our afternoon activities by introducing to us the power of social media and the impact it has on getting a message out. After training that included a skills workshop on how to take great pics, it was finally time to put these skills to practice. Watch out for Jack’s jokes towards the end of the video.
Day three was all about the launch of the One Climate, One World campaign. As well as showing our first blog, we were to present to Year six students at Brentwood Cathedral. The climax of the launch was a human heart photo. Needless to say we were all quite nervous. Check out our final video for this post showing you what happened behind the scenes.
Thank you CAFOD for this amazing opportunity. We are now all trained up and ready to take back everything we have learnt to school. We hope you keep popping back to see how our campaign is getting on.
Thanks for reading,
St James’ young climate bloggers
Great blog. Keep spreading the news!