Teach-In Climate and Justice Event at Business Senior High School, Tamale, Ghana. 

The event held in our school was attended by 9 staff and 96 students and we had five breakout session which were educative and engaging. 

 

The program started with the first breakout session, where Mr. Cletus Baalongbuoro, the lead teacher, gave a welcome address and a brief background of the program to the students and teachers. After that, the students, led by Miss Tasnim Yussif Belko, took over the program from the beginning to the end. She led them to watch a one-minute video on climate change after which she asked questions on the video. Some of the questions asked included, what do you understand by climate change? What are the effects of climate change? Various answers were given that suggested that students have a very good idea of climate change. 

 

In the second breakout session, a group of students acted a play to depict climate change. In the play, a certain community was experiencing irregular rainfall pattern, drought and sometimes flooding. The elders of the community gathered to find a solution to the problem. They decided to sacrifice some animals to their gods because they concluded that their gods were angry with them for one wrong or the other.  

 

A young student girl timely intervened by convincing the elders that the gods are not to blame for climate change. She urged the community members to plant more trees, recycle their farm waste into organic manure and stop the indiscriminate burning of the bush. After following the advice of the young girl for a few more years, the rainfall pattern became regular and all the other climatic conditions became normal. They had good harvest and lived healthy.  

 

After the play, Miss Tasnim again asked questions about the play to further stress the point that climate change is caused by human activities and as such we have the solution to climate change. 

In the third break out session, the student leader, Charles Lwanga Tanye, moderated a group of students on a panel discussion on climate change. He asked the panelists a series of questions ranging from the concept of climate change, causes, effects and solutions of climate change. Interesting responses were provided by the panel members. Some of the solutions they provided included; using renewable energy, planting more trees, recycle, reuse and reduce our waste. Farmers were advised to use climate smart methods of farming to protect the land and increase yield. 

In the fourth break out session, both the students and the teachers were given snacks for refreshment while watching a second video entitle “stopping climate change”. It was 17 minutes long and the students enjoyed it with their snacks. Once again, questions were asked from the video and the responses to the questions confirmed that our students have a very good understanding of climate change. 

The fifth breakout was the last session of the day. Students were put into five groups to further brainstorm the concept of climate change. They were asked to summarize all that they have learnt about climate change, the causes, effects and solutions. Each group was given five minutes to present their findings to the rest of the students. After the presentation, the Assistant Headmistress of the school, Madam Leila Kabore gave the closing remarks. She thanked the teachers and ISNAD-Africa for organizing the program. She urged the students to go all out and be ambassadors of climate change by implementing all that they have learnt.