OzGREEN, the Bellingen based environmental education group, has launched a crowdfunding appeal to raise money to support its global YOUth LEADing the World (YLTW) program.

Multiple YLTW congresses will run during November, coinciding with COP27 which runs from Sunday, 6 November to Friday, 18 November 2022 in Egypt this year.

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To reach 24 locations around the world with face-to-face sessions, along with online, multi-location sessions in two different time zones connecting young people around the world, the YLTW program seeks funding for such things as communication devices to assist young people to take part.

“For young people in African nations in particular our fundraising will support them to get computers and internet connections so they can join in the conversation,” Sue Lennox AM, co-founder of OzGREEN, told News Of The Area.

“We are also training local people to run the YLTW in their own region.

“For many of the young people we are working with, they need this support to get their voice onto the global stage.

“Imagine thousands of young people coming together across the planet to tackle global challenges such as energy, food, biodiversity, water quality and climate change and plan together on how they can lead,” posed Sue.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity.

“We’re going to have people involved in the OzGREEN program speaking each day at the Humanity Rising COP27, something we did at their last conference with a group from Sierra Leone; they had seven million views of the video they did about the program.”

The YLTW initiative provides young people around the world with a framework to step up to global challenges, training local facilitators to support the young people in their communities to be the change needed.

“For me it’s about lighting the fire, opening people to the potential young people have to be changemakers in their own communities, if they are given support and trust.

“They know what needs to change.”

What OzGREEN does is help them work out how they are going to do it.

As adults we need to walk beside them rather than trying to lead and tell them what to do, is their philosophy.

The key questions amongst the YLTW community are how do we do the transitions required and how do we regenerate damaged systems?

“Everything we do is with that focus,” said Sue.

“We’ve all got to step up now; it’s all about doing what needs to be done to protect and restore what we have and to make a rapid transition to sustainable ways in energy, foods and water systems.”

OzGREEN’s philosophy is to support community driven change.

“We work by having a fundamental trust in the capacity of local people and local communities to know what is best in their region, and how transition will happen in their region.”

Fairness also flows through the OzGREEN veins.

“Fairness for current generations and fairness for those who are coming after us,” said Sue.

OzGREEN has thriving relationships with young people all over the world through YLTW, from India to Sierra Leone to Central America to Australia and because they are all doing the same program, they all know each other’s concerns.

“It’s humbling and exciting to see what comes out of those connections,” closed Sue.

Call to action: donate to OzGreen’s YLTW fundraising at https://chuffed.org/project/yltw22.

If you know young people who would be interested in the YLTW, get them to participate.

If you would like to bring YLTW to your own local area, consider training as a facilitator.

See: https://sites.google.com/ozgreen.org.au/yltw/home

By Andrea FERRARI