loveLife participates in the African Youth for Climate Change summit at COP 17

LoveLife, South Africa’s largest HIV prevention programme for young people, took part in COP 17 through the event’s Climate Train and African Youth for Climate Change summit from 27 November to 3 December. Among the summit’s objectives was supporting African youth to strengthen their responses to climate change with the ultimate goal of helping them understand and address the impact of global warming.

At COP 17, 600 youth from all over Africa took part in the African Youth for Climate Change summit. These young people included members of three loveLife Enviro Ys clubs, who are made up of loveLife groundBREAKERS (peer educators who implement loveLife’s sexual health and lifeskills programmes), mpintshis (loveLife volunteer peer educators who are managed by groundBREAKERS) as well as programme participants.

The three Enviro Ys clubs who attended the summit were winners of a competition held last year, run by Enviro Ys, loveLife’s environmental programme. Those participating in the competition took part in greening, organic food gardening, recycling as well as energy and water saving projects.

loveLife’s Enviro Ys programme currently boasts 580 Enviro Ys clubs nationwide, where youth can engage in these activities as well as produce worm factories.

Speaking just before the Summit, Renay van Wyk who manages Enviro Ys said, “The three Enviro Ys clubs attending the summit can gain a wealth of knowledge, attract more youth to Enviro Ys clubs, network, develop new collaborations and be exposed to possible study and work opportunities. They’ll also be able to inform delegates about loveLife’s range of programmes.”

Together with the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA), loveLife sits on the steering committee of the summit, along with Indalo Yethu, Siemens, the National Youth Development Agency, the National Youth Skill Development Programme and Ulucha Empowered.

The summit offers a range of world class plenary sessions on various topics, from the impacts of climate change on health, to sustainable energy, to skills development and job opportunities in the green economy. Apart from attending the summit, the youth delegates went to nearby towns and villages to undertake tree planting and clean- up campaigns, and learn about recycling and waste management.

On World Aids Day, 1 December, loveLife hosted a talk on the benefits of recycling, the links between environmental health and HIV as well as educational and employment opportunities in the environmental sector.

loveLife’s involvement in COP 17 extends to the Climate Train which took off from Johannesburg on 26 October and travelled across South Africa before reaching COP 17. The train’s aims were to enhance education, awareness, advocacy, social mobilisation and engagement on climate change. As the train travelled around the country, loveLife peer educators came on board to promote loveLife programmes, while garnering information and mobilising youth to voice their concerns about climate change matters.