24 Sep 2014

Regional Community Programme manager for Environmental Programme Africa, Ms Chandida Monyadzwe has said that climate change is and will continue to be one of the main global challenges for humanity in the coming century.

This, she said, at the official opening of the five-day Botswana Red Cross Society (BRCS) youth camp themed Red Goes Green at the organisation’s farm near Gweta recently. 

Ms Monyadzwe noted that the Red Cross and Red Crescent have already been confronted with a sharp increase in weather related disasters and as such there was need to better manage the rising risk of extreme weather events through better early warnings. 

She noted that there should not only be early warnings, but also enhanced disaster relief, increased efforts on disaster risk reduction, including better and smarter programmes in health care and food security.

Furthermore, she pointed out that the majority of local people still believe that climate change is a foreign issue. This, she noted, was a result of little knowledge being shared with communities regarding climate change. 

She highlighted that it was imperative for stakeholders dealing with the challenge to work as a unit with proper coordination and connectivity to deal with the situation and to disseminate enough information on the challenge.

Ms Monyadzwe said work was on-going under the BRCS disaster management portfolio to assist communities to better prepare for, mitigate and manage disasters at the community level. 

BRCS, she said, is a key partner in the Zambezi River Basin project together with the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa  and Mozambique.

She said the project focuses heavily on climate change mitigation activities and working closely with the communities in the affected areas of the basin, adding that BRCS is looking to dovetail its programmes through the creation of the youth camp.

In addition, she said that the youth members attending the camp would also be participating in leadership and team building activities as well as specific environment related workshops aimed at equipping them with skills which would help them implement environmental related projects which they developed prior to the camp.

The youth camp is the first of its kind and has attracted more than 70 youths from Satau, Parakarungu and Shakawe. ENDS