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Fungai Lupande-Mash Central Bureau
GRADUATING students at Frontline Institute in Shamva made moving speeches about climate change as the institute continues to produce young global development ambassadors ready to find home-grown solutions to climate change.
The students, drawn from countries in Africa, Central, South and North America, Europe and Asia, eventually return to their countries, but they leave behind a number of climate change mitigation measures that have transformed Shamva.
As part of the community outreach programme, the students work with the community surrounding the school in developing initiatives to fight global warming and climate change.
It is in these communities that the school inspires small-scale farmers to experiment with a number of agriculture practices suited to the changing weather patterns.
Mrs Grace Gasa from Ward 8 said Shamva stands tall when it comes to climate change adaptation due to the immense knowledge and skills the institute has shared with the community.
“After training the students then come with their skills to the community. They introduced fruit tree plantations to help us attain food security,” she said.
“The students from different countries come up with useful initiatives that we can adopt including the tsotso stove. This has been helpful in preserving our forests and reserving firewood.”
Mrs Gasa said the students invented a water geyser which uses direct sunlight to preserve firewood and other energy sources.
The community can create their own manure for gardening and use chillies and aloe as pesticides.
“We are doing a lot with these students and we appreciate them. These initiatives have preserved our forests as a result we receive good rains despite difficult agriculture seasons,” she said.
At their graduation ceremony last week, the students spoke passionately about the environment and the climate adaptation measures they want take to their countries.
Flavio Chapaka from Mozambique said he was proud to be part of the people who provide solutions to challenges affecting society. The Portuguese speaking student joined the class without knowing a single English word, but says he can now communicate in English “despite grammatical and pronunciation setbacks here and there”.
“Most importantly, when I go back to Mozambique, I will champion initiatives that will make people take responsibility, act and solve problems.
“It is better late than never. Men have become an enemy of the future but when nature retaliates, it results in devastating calamities. I have witnessed Cyclone Idai displacing people in Zimbabwe and Mozambique from their original places,” said Chapaka.
Beatrice Kapona from Malawi said she was geared to take action against climate change when she gets back home.
“Together we achieve more and lean on each other. Collective action promotes unity. I am going to use skills and knowledge obtained during this training to bring change in my community,” she said.
Rinku Fansal from India said during the programme, he learnt that “capitalism is dividing people, the rich become richer and poor poorer”.
“I side with the poor and I came here to acquire developmental skills to address issues affecting the poor.”
Tinashe Kapfudza from Zimbabwe said the world needed caretakers who can take care and pave the way for a developed future.
“I want to be a great grandfather of this generation by engaging myself in actions that generate income for myself and marginalised communities,” he said.
“I will employ sustainable initiatives to combat different forms of catastrophes affecting humanity. We cannot wait for other people to create opportunities for us. This makes it difficult to escape from the vicious cycle of poverty.”
Simbarashe Paswavaviri from Zimbabwe again, said she realised that garden farming was smart and necessary for survival in addressing hunger, malnutrition and poverty.
“Organic farming is a sustainable method of farming. Potholing, mulching, inter-cropping, crop rotation and use of organic manure enables farmers to adapt to the effects of global warming and climate change,” she said.
“I thank Frontline Institute for the opportunity of learning. Now I am ready, I know I am needed out there.”
Online Reporter