Speaker: Raymond Mark, Zambia
How (and why) are you taking action on climate change solutions in, for, and with your community?
Raymond Mark: Hi there, my name is Raymond Mack. I'm from Kenya, but based in Zambia, I'm a student at the University of Zambia.
Raymond Mark: Uh So I, I have involved myself in several activities of involving sheep planting. I, I was a scout leader and being that I was the scout leader, I was so much engaged with uh using the young pupils to influence the others to to influence the other pupils also to be in a position for them to uh plant more trees. And we started an initiative in our, in our, I mean, in our school, whereby we started by raising seedlings and then after we raise seedlings, they're being planted at uh I mean, in schools and thereafter, the rest are given to students to go plant at home. Secondly, uh here is a, I mean, a bottle that has been cut into a glass, I thought as, as a mechanism or as a way of recycling the waste environment and making sure that the society uh get benefits from recycling uh uh kind of materials and making good use of them like this one, for example, you take it and then you cut it and then uh you make it as an alternative use of other products. Uh So uh those, those are some of the things I contribute. I've been doing that I ensure that the society knows that recycling this waste is also a way of avoiding uh you know, uh you know, uh environmental pollution because if they're dumped uh in the, I mean, uh in the, you know, the dump sites, they're not decomposable, they stay there for life. So as a way of us to avoid all that environmental pollution, I had to come up with that, you know, in, I mean, in, in uh in, in uh create, I mean, creativity and innovation so far. Uh I've cut a number and I'm trying also to make sure that a number of people also may know that glasses are also very, I mean plastic, uh I mean, not plastic but glass boards can be also be used as decorations and very many other purposes apart from just being dumped and put everywhere. Another thing I've been doing, I myself, I, I'm an artist. I draw and in my drawing, I've been trying to draw uh to draw trees in almost every piece of art that I draw. This is because I'm trying to convey a message to the people that we should love nature and embrace nature because nature is very, very important as, as, as, as far as it's concerned, but it's because our actions and our responsibilities that we haven't taken are now bringing our world to, I mean to a threatening situation whereby we are even scared of the future. Well, yes. Also to uh to, to also high on some of the, some of the reasons that fueled me to be in a position to do all this. Uh My society and my community has been affected so much. Uh I was in Kenya and I've lived around the lake region where uh majority of the people uh depend on uh I mean fishing and uh not only fishing but also in small scale agriculture. And so uh consistently, there have been severe droughts and uh the droughts have been so severe by there is lack of water and I just got to know that it is because of climate change that has brought about this. So that really fueled me to be in this platform and also to be in a position to understand what it takes for us to protect our environment. Uh Also uh uh like uh like last, I mean, like last year, last year, Kenya had also a problem of El Nino rains and the rains were very extreme to an extent. A number of people died. We lost more than 160 60 people because of excess flooding. And the worst thing is that the flooding comes at a time when the country itself should not experience flooding. So that is a sign that there is climate change and we have to take basically reactions and basically act, I mean, take necessary action and be on the limelight to make sure that everybody knows about climate change and the seasons no more like it used to be. And that's why we have to take responsibility and responsibility doesn't start with me by myself, but it starts with us and it starts with the young people and it starts with us all and it starts when we realize our potential that we can lead and we can be and we can build a sustainable future. Thank you.
