YOUNG PEOPLE in Wagina, Choiseul Province, are taking the lead in the fight against climate change through building coastal defences to protect their communities from the adverse effects of rising sea levels.
Increased wave erosion on the windward side of Wagina has resulted in sand migration leaving the fossil corals bare and exposed.
Ruben, a robust youth leader of Nikumaroro, reveals the sad history of their village’s shoreline.
“Before on the coastline there was a lot of white coral sand. Now it’s all bare rock. Big waves and giant tides took the sand away.
“People who built their houses and kept their pigs close to the shoreline are now relocating their homes and pig pens.”
As part of Youth@Work Rural Programme, Ruben and his peers undertook 2 weeks of climate change adaptation training conducted in partnership with the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and German aid agency GIZ and Solomon Islands government ministry partners.
Reflecting on the experience, Ruben said, “During the trainings we learned what climate change is and identified appropriate mitigation measures like erecting seawall defences and planting mangroves to stop wave erosion.”
Following the training, 4 groups of 10-youth-each for 4 villages of Wagina got engaged in 20 weeks of climate change adaptation in their home villages under the Youth@Work programme.
“The seawall we are building is important to Nikumaroro community. Before, nothing could withstand the destructive power of waves during storms. Now the seawalls stop the waves and I feel safe.”
Such climate change activities that Ruben and young people from his community have done have not only enhanced ecological development but also improved people’s living conditions.
“It is important for everybody, from youths to authorities, that we work together to prevent and minimise the disastrous effects of rising sea levels from destroying our village and way of life,” Ruben stressed.
The Youth@Work Rural Programme is aimed at putting youth at the forefront of climate change understanding and adaptation.
Youths are also equipped in rural communities with basic business knowledge to become young entrepreneurs following their 20 weeks of community service around climate change activities.
The village community service also includes promotion of personal and community hygiene and support to vulnerable persons in village through the “Helping Hands” each week.
The Youth@Work trainings and awareness foster personal growth through practical activities that promotes community based resource management to addresses food security and climate change.
The Provincial Youth@Work programme is implemented by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, supported by the Australian Government and in partnership with Queens Leaders Awards, Plan International, as well as the Solomon Islands Ministry of National Unity, Peace and Reconciliation, the Ministry of Commerce, Industries, Labour and Immigration, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism; and the Ministry of Women, Youth, Children and Family Affairs. Youth@Work is an initiative to tackle youth unemployment in Solomon Islands.
— YOUTH@WORK PRESS
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