Climate change hardly heralds anything good, especially for the village-dwellers who are extremely vulnerable and dependent on the environment.
The folks from TYCC (Tajik Youth Climate Coalition) from Tajikistan, part of the international GlobalPowerShift family, have contributed to the common cause against the climate change and to the involvement of the local communities in solving this problem.
Participants and organizers of the climate school at a field trip
They held a two-day Climatic Activists School for the seniors of a village high school near Dushanbe.
The location had been chosen deliberately: the Varzob valley is a place where the city folks have traditionally gone to for short breaks. This is a wonderful highland abundant with springs and streams. This location is a climate-shaping region as well as the source of drinking water for Dushanbe; it is very climate-change vulnerable. The continuing deforestation as well as rain-caused mudflows and landslides aggravate the situation even further. The climate change may speed up the deterioration and lead to disastrous consequences.
The event, organized precisely to help both locals and activists understand this, was attended by some 15 pupils and teachers of a village school of Yakkachuguz kishlak (village).
The participants of the Climatic Activists School discussed particularly such issues as what the climate change is (the greenhouse effect, global causes and consequences of the climate change), local climate change consequences (how the village is dependent on the favorable climate, the ice shield melting, draughts, drinking water, natural disasters, energy and agriculture); what you can do against the climate change and its consequences (deforestation in your community – planting greenery, pollution, energy efficiency); the experience of the use of the local materials in house insulation and energy saving; adapting to the climate change (energy efficient ovens; insulating houses with locally produced materials); the renewable energy (sources, wind, water, biomass, sun). This section was conducted by a TYCC participant Bakhtier Rakhimov.
The section on art as a means to draw attention to the problems of the environment and the climate change was carried out by another TYCC participant Aziz Timurov.
The organizers are in particular grateful to Komron Asozod for facilitating the training and to Anton Timoshenko for the handout kits on climate change he provided.
Photographs from the school:
Bakhtier Rakhimov opens the School
Discussing the presentation
Groupwork
As a result of the mudflow from the mountains, part of the hill collapsed and the house found itself at the edge of a precipice. The risk of the further house collapse is fairly high, yet the family has no means to leave it and build a new one
The locals show the distance which the split spans after the mudflow
The mudflow created a huge split. The local inhabitants are throwing rubbish in there, so as to fill it up and slow down the future mudfloods
School insulation master class. In winter, the classrooms are usually heated with coal
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Text and pictures by Aziz Timurov