Speaker: Charles Kholwani Chidakwa, Harare, Zimbabwe
How (and why) are you taking action on climate change solutions in, for, and with your community?
Charles Kholwani Chidakwa: Hi there. Um I welcome you all. My name is Charles Chit Awa from Zimbabwe in Harare and I am um climate change um activist. Um So for me, um climate change has always been um a close subject to me that I'm very passionate about, especially considering um I grew up in the rural areas and we used to farm produce for our food and surplus for resale. And right now it's difficult to accomplish that and to do that. So this is what the reason that drove me into um becoming a climate change activist. Um So my method of taking action and how I participate is I sat down and really understood the problem that um organizations just come in and tell us about climate change using all these briefcase words, using all these big jargons, something that we don't relate to on a grassroots level. So what I came up with was a plan to use art as a form of communication to break down um climate change issues into palatable content that um every person in the community identifies with. Um art comes in various forms. I use um artwork, graffiti, I use murals and I also dramatize some of the issues just to push the point home. So that um even uh the lowest person can understand in a community where I come from people. Is it very well when you dramatize things and when you make them uh have a laugh and at the same time, um.
Who or what inspires/inspired you to care about climate change and climate solutions?
Charles Kholwani Chidakwa: My motivation for climate change and for being a climate change activist um comes from my love for nature growing up in a farm, growing up in the rural and seeing how good the economy um the climate was and also the benefits of um the economic benefits um if we manage our climate in a sustainable environment. So as communities, we are now trying very much hard to make sure that we um educate and inform um all members of the community on the benefits of keeping our environment clean and uh observing climate change issues and making sure that we play our role because once it starts at a grassroots level, then it means that it can cascade all the way um up the trunk of the tree up to the legislators and to the law so that we put laws in place that help um keep and sustain our environment. This is for the better and the goodness of our future generations and for our Children and Children to come because we only have one earth to pass around and one earth they are going to inherit
