KINGSTON, JAMAICA - Panos Caribbean, through its internationally recognized Voices for Climate Change Education initiative, has launched an eight-month climate change community awareness campaign focusing on four communities across Jamaica: Rocky Point and Lionel Town in Clarendon, Ridge Red Bank in St Elizabeth and White River in St Ann.
Over the next few months, Panos will work with each community to support and highlight local efforts to promote climate smart practices by mobilizing local and national artistic talent to do outreach activities to raise awareness of the issues. Artists from the communities will join national singers and performers in a multi-part workshop designed to help them understand climate change and craft effective climate change messages. The workshops will take the artists to each of the participating communities so they can see first-hand the climate change impacts that are being confronted and how the communities are responding. The artists will then perform in six school and community concerts that will take place between April and August 2019.
Campaign activities will also encourage school students to use their creativity to craft climate change adaptation messages. Students in the four communities will be challenged to produce 60-second video messages with prizes given for the best productions. The campaign includes a short story competition for students and a reading initiative that will introduce young readers to literature on climate change while encouraging them to read.
The Voices for Climate Change Education 2019 campaign is being implemented as part of the Planning Institute of Jamaica’s (PIOJ’s) Improving Climate Data and Information Management Project (ICDIMP) under Jamaica’s Special Programme for Climate Resilience (SPCR).