Youth Educational and Environmental Trainings

Youth Leaders-Advocate Camp 2011

“Lead the G.R.E.E.N. Change against Climate Change”

Dalaguete, Cebu

Mother Earth is dying and along with her, her children–us. Mother is heating up, and her tears are washing away the very life she has provided us. She cries and the waters rise, she moans and the earth shakes,she sobs and the land dries.

Climate change is not a nightmare it is a reality that we are living now. The change is Global Warming, which is an increase in the average global temperature. To date the Earth’s temperature is rising as much as 0.13 degrees Celsius per decade! As a fact, topping off the warmest decade in history, 2010 experienced a global average temperature of 14.63 degrees Celsius (58.3 degrees Fahrenheit), tying 2005 as the hottest year in 131 years of record keeping.

The effects of such change to people range from the loss of homes to the very life they have. For along Global Warming come: drought, stronger hurricanes, heat waves and rise in sea level.

There is nothing natural in what is happening. All that is coming about is made by us, made by the very children she fed, clothed, sheltered, made by the very children she gives life to.

To add insult to injury, we have our society attacked by apathy. Apathy towards the climate and apathy towards the real situation of those who we call our countrymen. Social irresponsibility is such a fixed and accepted feature that we force to close our eyes every time we see the path that must be taken to make sure that all humans be treated as humans.

The youth who are supposed to be the catalyst for change have long been focused only on their own personal growth. They have been made to see only themselves and not realizing that the society and their immediate surroundings have a great effect on them. They have long been detached to those people whom they meet in this journey called life, that the youth see themselves a separate entity in a society whom for them will never understand their nature.

As such, these problems will not go without intervention, guidance and leadership of those willing enough to carry the torch and provide the light to break the darkness of hopelessness.

The youth with all their zeal and open-mindedness must be shown to not only serve themselves but serve the society in which they are part of. Their eyes must see that Climate Change has to do with the massive production of green house gases because of the thirst for profit in the privatized generation of power and not only in waste management. The youth’s mind must grow critical in whatever injustice that is happening in their day-to-day lives. They must be provided that collective leadership is democracy in its purest form.

With this in mind this Summer Youth Camp for Leaders-Advocates aims to provide a new understanding in the quest for climate justice. Here also they will learn how to lead collectively and develop democracy within their organizations and their lives. Here they will learn how to embody what our national hero Dr. Jose Rizal said that “the youth is the hope for the future.”

VMPRDC’s annual Summer Youth Camp jumpstart VMPRDC’s Summer Youth Program. The Program and its kick-off activity, the  Camp,  seeks to redirect the youth’s energies to more worthwhile, productive endeavors, hone their talents, and encourage their creativity and resourcefulness while promoting camaraderie among them in their pursuit of relevant social causes. Community, civic consciousness is promoted, and volunteerism for relevant social causes is supported via the SYP.

This year’s Youth Leaders-Advocate Camp gathers those among the youth who are interested in civic involvement, form their resolve to actively engage and/or involve themselves in social causes, develop their skills especially for advocacy, and promote youth volunteerism for such causes. For the Camp, VMPRDC enjoins the co-sponsorship of Sining Dilaab Cultural Group and Youth for Nationalism and Democracy (YND-Cebu Chapter) and participation of existing youth formations – in the schools, the communities and the parishes.

Youth Leaders-Advocate Camp 2011 shall have at its theme “Lead the G.R.E.E.N. Change against Climate Change!” promote the youth’s consciousness of the crisis and how it impacts on people’s lives and their environ, and help them in defining the positive role they can play and the activities they can engage on to mitigate the impact of the crisis on the people’s lives.  As in earlier camps, it seeks to develop among the participants the culture of volunteerism, of active engagement.  Artistic skills will again be honed, so that through art forms, they may be able to evoke the culture of hope, as they actively emerge themselves on the concerns emanating from the economic crisis and the continuing destruction of the  environment.

The Camp shall be a three-day activity. The first day opens with a study of the global environmental crisis and its impact on the people’s lives including the Inputs on Global environmental principles, systems, protection and strategies, the G.R.E.E.N. Campaign and shall discuss on the youth’s role in the present day society, the second to third days shall focus on workshops to hone their leadership skill and for planning courses of action and a plenary session to form resolutions.  The design of the Summer Youth Program (its volunteerism part) shall take off from the resolutions formed by the camp participants.

The Camp is slated on April 1-3, 2011. Summer volunteers from among camp participants shall be organized soon after for their real summer volunteer work.

Would you donate $10 and offer one youth the chance to join an environmental youth camp and become a leader in environmental sustainability? You can donate online by clicking here

Or you could send your check to Bayanihan Foundation Worldwide, 2020 N. California Ave. Suite 7, Box 147, Chicago, IL 60647. Your donation is tax-deductible in the US; please consult your tax advisor for more details.