Youth go for low-carbon actions

Learners and educators from eight Cape Town schools attended the annual Project 90 by 2030’s Leadership Clubs Summit hosted by Rhodes High School in Mowbray.

Project 90 by 2030 is a national organisation that seeks to bring about massive change in how people engage with the environment and each other. The Leadership Clubs are a part of the Young Leaders Programme – its aim is to inspire and mobilise school communities towards low-carbon action.

At the Leadership Clubs members initiate and run low-carbon projects at their schools. Past projects have included:

• campaigns encouraging the school community to use glass bottles in place of plastic bottles;
• mobilising fellow learners and educators to reduce, re-use and recycle;
• and creating awareness within the school community around energy use.

Days of Action raise awareness

In 2014, the Leadership Clubs led Days of Action in their schools to raise awareness about climate change, getting their school community involved to take positive action. An outstanding Day of Action took place at South Peninsula High School, whereby the Leadership Club encouraged their school to recycle cans and plastic bottles in return for homemade cakes.

In January 2015, Project 90 by 2030 selected four dynamic young mentors to support and guide the Leadership Clubs in the Western Cape. The mentors will be visiting the clubs regularly, and will assist the clubs in setting objectives and working towards achieving their goals.

Interestingly two mentors are former Leadership Club members. The National Leadership Clubs Coordinator, Daniel Robinson, said “It is great to see past Leadership Club members becoming mentors, and to see that young people want to give back to their community.” Athenkosi Baba, a Leadership Clubs mentor, said that he “wants to give back to the community and inspire his peers to become positive change makers in their schools.”

Learning how to deal with problems

Vimbainashe Mupfururirwa, a Grade 12 learner, said – “What I loved most about the day was getting to work together as a team… and meeting our mentor. We spoke about our problems at our school and got ideas on how to deal with them… I had a really great day.”

The learners left the Leadership Clubs Summit feeling inspired and mobilised, ready to get to work in their schools. Project 90 by 2030 would like to thank the Green Campus Initiative at UCT, the learners, the educators, and mentors for making the day a huge success.

To find out more about the Leadership Clubs please visit our webpage – www.90by2030.org.za or visit the Leadership Club’s Facebook page – www.facebook.com/Project90ClubNetwork

Green Times is happy to welcome Project 90 by 2030 to our Green Buddies programme. Our platform is open to fellow earth warriors doing good work. Please write to writers@thegreentimes.co.za if you’d like to join.