Youth competition highlights climate change [1]
Thursday, December 16, 2021 - 17:40
Youth from the communities of Nuku’alofa, Hahake, and Hihifo took part in a competition event highlighting climate resilience and social change, under the Agents for Change Project, at the Nuku'alofa waterfront today.
Each of the youth groups performed songs, read out short stories and took part in a quiz as part of the competition.
Prizes of $5,000, $3,000, and $2,000 were awarded to Nuku’alofa, Hahake, and Hihifo respectively.
Youth also showed off a community asset mapping project of the Nuku’alofa area, which they completed using recycled goods and rubbish.
Live & Learn Country Manager, Peni Havea, said the competition was the last part of the project activities.
He explained that the project's aim was to train 360 young people in Tonga to be agents of change, however, more youths wanted to take part and a total of 380 youths were trained.
“From what I saw, the youth were very interested in this project. And we did not stop them from participating.”
Those that took part were those who did not get much support in their communities, he said.
He suggested tht the youth use their prize money to start a youth council in each of their communities, because there is a Youth Parliament in Tonga.
“Talk to your Town Officers and local MPs for guidance.”
Peni also encouraged the youth to use the training they learned and use it in their communities.
After the competition they launched a website agentsofchange.site [2] which contains information on the project. Peni said the youth can access all the information they learned as well as resources, materials, and reports.
The Agents for Change Project was run over two years in Tongatapu, ‘Eua, Ha’apai, and Vava’u and funded by the European Union and implemented by Live & Learn Tonga.
The aim was to build capacity and the capability of youth to inform and advocate on issues related to climate change and support their communities to be resilient and prepared for change.
Under the project, youth were also able to visit sites affected by climate change, and have the ability to write effective and efficient small-scale project proposals of no more than $20,000.