Resource Pack: Sharing the story of the Arab Youth Day of Action
the following is an except from a recent email by our colleague & Arab Youth Climate Movement enthusiast, Anna Collins:
Dear all,
I wrote to you last week telling you about the launch of the Arab Youth Climate Movement and how we as GCCA partners and allies can help to support them. I’m now following up with a pack of resources to help you continue to support them in making change.On Saturday (10/11/12) youth within Oman, UAE, Mauritania, Bahrain, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Algeria and Morocco lead the way to COP18 by creating their first ever Day of Action Calling for Arab Leadership. Many of you took to social media to support them, so first of all, thank you for that.
The day was a huge success, these grassroots groups took a range of actions from marches to art projects, in countries where there has been very little action on climate change in the past. Many of the events began with education, laying the ground work for true long lasting climate movements in the region.
In this email we hope to provide all the info and resources you need to tell the story of the AYCM and their day of action. We hope to use this inspiring story over the next few weeks to give a face to the call for action at the COP in Qatar, but also in the longer term we hope the story will provide inspiration that can be used to illustrate that young people in the Arab region do not agree with their governments stance, and are leading the way to an Arab region which is progressive on climate change.
We hope you will take these resources, tell the story in your own way, and spread it through your own channels.
If there’s one thing we’ve learnt in the last few years it’s not to underestimate young people in the Arab world and their potential to create change. So we hope you can help us spread their story around the world.
See below for details, photos and media coverage of the days actions across these countries + pre-set Tweets.
Additionally, look out for the work the AYCM does before, during and after COP18 – It is truly amazing to see the international youth climate movement continue to grow and continue to excite us.
Additionally, look out for the work the AYCM does before, during and after COP18 – It is truly amazing to see the international youth climate movement continue to grow and continue to excite us.
The Arab Youth Climate Movement have asked me to pass on their heartfelt thanks for all your support so far.
And thanks in advance for your continuing support in sharing their story
Anna
The Story to Share
What happened on Saturday
At the end of November, world world leaders will convene in Doha, Qatar at the 18th UN Climate Summit (COP18) to discuss what needs to be done on climate change, and that is why on November 10th, youth in the Arab region came together for the very first Arab Day of Climate Action. To remind policy makers of the urgency of climate change and push Qatar, as the host country of the UN summit, to show leadership and take a strong stance on climate action.
- All the photos from the events can be found here.
- Photos and tweets from the day have been placed within a Arab Youth Climate Movement’s Day of Action Storify piece.
- Kelly Rigg’s Guardian piece on the AYCM’s day of action. The Arab Youth Climate Movement should Give us hope
And here is a quick round up of what happened in the different countries
- In Palestine, Gaza youth marched for action on climate change at COP18.
https://www.facebook.com/events/279521385501801/?notif_ t=plan_user_invited - In Egypt two events took place.
1) was a march through Cario to the Arab Leauge HQ2) Was a big ‘Keep Clean’ art attack within Mansoura
https://www.facebook.com/AYCMEgypt - In Libya they started the day with a conference, then went out onto the streets to march and finally they ended up in a studio talking about climate change and the Arab Youth Climate Movement with national radio.
http://www.facebook.com/events/372211022859939/ - In Morocco the team produced a music show with the core message of “Time to lead”
https://www.facebook.com/events/214512915349421/
- In Algeria a conference within a local university, lead to the participants taking to the streets for some fantastic photo opportunities.
http://www.facebook.com/events/133932076754652/
- In Oman a series of debates and circle discussions; they were also joined by Bader Alrahbi, one of the first 2 Omani men to set foot on Antarctica.
https://www.facebook.com/350.Oman?fref=ts - In UAE a fun day out for unprivileged/orphan children was arranged, within one of the main parks within Dubai.
https://www.facebook.com/350UAE?fref=ts - In Bahrain an educational Session and dialogue within the Bahrain Science Centre.
https://www.facebook.com/AYCMBahrain - In Iraq youth held a seminar in which politicians and environmentalists gave speeches on climate change issues.
- Saudi Arabia youth went on to Twitter to discuss climate change with other youth across the country and around the world.
https://www.facebook.com/AycmSaudiArabia - In Lebanon a public graffiti jigsaw with the core message of “Arabs, it’s time to lead” was created.
http://www.facebook.com/events/157442394398747/ 159248934218093/?notif_t=plan_ mall_activity - In Jordan a street party, with discussions, plays and activities for young people to show that there want action at COP18.
http://www.facebook.com/events/426965647368101/? context=create - In Sudan the team set up 4 days of action, filled with spreading awareness, workshops and tree planting.
https://www.facebook.com/ArabYouthClimateMovement - The Mauritania team held a conference for local people, to do with climate change action – This was then followed by the team planting suitable vegetation within the desert.
Who are the AYCM?
The Arab Youth Climate movement is an independent body that was initiated by IndyAct and set up with support from GCCA, 350.org,and CAN International. They work to create a generation-wide movement across the Middle East & North Africa to solve the climate crisis, and to assess and support the establishment of legally binding agreements to deal with climate change issue within international negotiations.
Established in the lead up to the UNFCCC COP18 Doha negotiations, AYCM is driven by over 20 national coordinators spread across 15 MENA countries and aims to make its presence felt from the Gulf to the Atlantic.
Head to the website and the Say Hello to the AYCM blog to find out how there set themselves up in a workshop back in September.
Press
- - Algeria feature in the EL ACIL Le journal de l’est Algerien newspaper and within Algerie Patriotique
- - The Libya radio interview can be found here
- - Cdurable Info
- - World Environment TV
- - SiloBreaker
Social Media
For Twitter
- Share the story of the Arab Youth Climate Movement’s @AY_CM Day of Action on #climate http://goo.gl/P07ba
- The Arab Youth Climate Movement @AY_CM gives us hope goo.gl/rhyXa #climate
- Ahead of #COP18 Arab youth mobilize for action http://goo.gl/P07ba @AY_CM #climate
- The Arab Youth Climate Movement should give us hope http://goo.gl/tsFkR and it does http://goo.gl/P07ba - @AY_CM #climate
For facebook
- Share the Day of Action photo album which includes beautiful photos from all the actions
- On the day we created a graphic that you can still share
For bloggers
- The code so you can embed the flickr slideshow on your blog
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About the Author
Joshua Wiese is a project director at the Global Campaign for Climate Action. He runs the Adopt a Negotiator project and publishes our weekly Fresh Air BriefView Author Profile
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