Last week on Tuesday 7 May, our Interact Council executive team had the privilege of attending the annual World Vision Youth Conference at Trusts Arena, and having the chance to hear from the Youth Ambassadors and guest speakers on the climate crisis. Throughout the conference, one main message was emphasised that stuck with us quite closely, which was that “Every single one of us deserves a future where our people and planet thrive.”
This year’s focus for the 40-Hour Challenge (21-23 June) will be on our Asia-Pacific neighbours. One story that stood out to us the most was that of Pasquela from Timor-Leste, who had to drop out of university and stop her sisters’ education because her family couldn’t afford to pay for extra expenses, let alone feed themselves after a cyclone and drought destroyed her family’s rice farm which was their only source of income. After hearing about this, we felt horrible because a situation like this is so unfair and unjust for anyone to have to deal with. No one should be made to give up their education just so they can survive. What makes it even worse is that in countries like Timor-Leste, 0.003% of global emissions are produced by them, yet Timor-Leste is one of the countries most impacted by climate change.
In the later parts of the conference, we also had a chance to hear from guest speaker Faiesea Ah Chee – a member of the Youth Advisory Group for the Ministry for the Environment. She spoke about climate change in her home country of Samoa and how important it is to her to weave a brighter future for our Pacific nations and preserve the indigenous languages and oceans. We also heard from Tim Read, Masterchef New Zealand 2015 winner and mental health advocate, who shared his own experiences and advice regarding human development and connections. We learnt a lot from both speakers and took so much away from them regarding their key messages mentioned above.
After the conference, the Interact executive team is feeling really motivated to fundraise a lot this year and beat last year’s amount! We hope to spread the amazing messages we have learnt from the conference and get the school motivated for this amazing cause. Make sure to stay in touch with us so that you can stay up to date with the future events we will be planning for the 40-Hour Challenge!
Palak Parmar – Interact Exec Member, Year 12
