Commonwealth Youth Climate Summit

I received a phone call from Messeh Kamara asking if I was interested in becoming one of the volunteer steering group committee members for the forthcoming Young Commonwealth Climate Change Summit which was to be held in London. This was a blessing because I had developed an interest in the issues of Climate Change and how I could be of help, because in most of my interactions young people still think it’s an issue of the West, and yet we are all affected and the effects are seen with a necked eye. I gladly accepted to be part of the team. I have been involved with CIVICUS since 2006 as one of the steering committee members and Messeh had got my details from Derek, a friend in the UK who was also involved.

The Young Commonwealth Climate Summit was an initiative that I was so keen to be part of it and share my commitment. I checked out the summit website that was made by Tim Davies (Practical Participation), and I really wanted to be there and make a difference. After about three months of continued online planning, working on the agenda, trying to find speakers, logistics, setting of dates and changing of dates, the day finally came when, as a committee, all was set for the great Commonwealth Youth Summit.

I was a youth from Zambia who was doing the communications - that’s the website and content. It was challenging and exciting but we made it. We really had an awesome team that had it all going towards the summit.

At first it was not clear whether I would get a travel bursary or not because there where issues of budget constraints. A lot of youth had applied, but unfortunately funds were not available in time to grant many travel bursaries. I was very fortunate to have been accorded a travel bursary and accommodation throughout the summit and this also really boosted my participation at the summit.

Thanks to my sponsors, the Commonwealth Foundation via CYEC, I got to London in time for the summit. When the day came for the official opening of the summit, it was a great joy to see all the different faces of brilliant youth from across the globe, coming out to speak about Climate Change and how we could make a difference in the world.

It was a very fruitful Summit and the highs were when I was chairing the discussion on Networking and setting up our network, which has been formed. It is called the Commonwealth Youth Climate Initiative (CYCI) and it is all thanks to the great minds that had input to all this. I feel that it’s always important to share and learn from such experience in person, unlike if we had a conference call, or skype call. The impact would have not been felt. The other highlight was also when we all got engaged in the drafting of the Youth Climate Statement that was to be taken to CHOGM and COP15. This again would not have been possible to do online, but in the manner we did it, such that you could actually see how passionate the young people are to make a climate change in any part of the world they live in.

All in all, it being the first Commonwealth Youth Climate Summit, it was great and had positive outcomes. I personally have continued with my zeal and even went to the extent of going to the Commonwealth Youth Programme’s Africa Region office in Lusaka to share what I did while I was in the UK and see how we can work together on issues of Climate Change. It is a good start and I hope and trust we can go further in advocacy.

I just would like to say thank you for all the hard work day and night to make sure that I got my air ticket and that accommodation and all was taken care of. I trust that it was a very noble cause and in future will produce fruit. Please continue with this kind of support as it will surely go a long way in changing the lives of us the young people.

TOGETHER EVERYONE ACCOMPLISHES MUCH (TEAM)

Chola Simwanza