Climate change impact is severe on developing countries like Bangladesh. After having received youth leadership and SDG 13-focused trainings, organised by Young Power in Soical Action (YPSA), youth leaders under our Advancing Development in Bangladesh project (LEAD Bangladesh) project can fully appreciate the complexities of adopting environmental-friendly ways of living. Our trained youth leaders in Chattogram are contributing to climate action by taking on some initiatives in their communities. These initiatives are called Social Action Projects (SAPs) and these mainly are designed to make changes in communities through advocating with local government, community people, and other relevant stakeholders.
‘My house, my responsibility' is one such SAP from the Nabinagar area that is working to improve the waste management system at the household level. They targeted homemakers, community people, college students, and young people from 25 households. By holding periodical meetings with this selected group of people, our youth leaders are introducing ways to manage household waste. They suggested to the members of the households to keep red and green coloured bins for their waste - one bin is for biodegradable waste while other would be for non-biodegradable products. Segregating waste products at the household level can help ensure proper waste management and recycling whenever possible.
‘Plastic-free Kornofully Bazar’ is another SAP that is working with the Bazar committee members, shop keepers and local councillors to reduce polythene usage in Kornofully Bazar. Our youth leaders have been successful in promoting and convincing the Bazar committee members to use cloth bags instead of plastic bags and to reduce the overall use of one-time plastic. All the shopkeepers in Kornofully Bazar are now using cloth bags.
‘Students Climate Movement’ SAP is trying to motivate young people and college students to plant trees wherever possible. The youth leaders under this project have also communicated with school administrations and programmes to motivate school students to plant trees. Amongst the administrations, Hill View Public School teachers are actively contributing to the initiative and are committed to encouraging students to plant trees. "Student’s Climate Movement is a worthwhile activity plan to increase awareness about climate change issues among the young people, who are essentially the future of the country," says Md Taher Hossain, a college teacher.
The SAPs are some of the few projects that are working to tackle the adversaries of climate change and taking game-changing steps to make a positive difference in the longer run.
