Climate change agenda for truckers’ children

Over the summer of 2020, ACTAsia worked with a group of partners to plant the seeds of environmental awareness, interconnectedness, global citizenship and road safety in China.

SCANIA – Swedish manufacturer of worldwide commercial vehicles, and Cheng Shin Tire, the world’sbiggest manufacturer of bicycle tires, together with education committees, elementary school leaders and meteorological experts joined us to host a three and a half day summer camp in August, at Ziyang Sixth Elementary School in Wuyuan.

Most of Jiangxi’s 44 million inhabitants live rurally, with many employed as truck drivers. The school invited ACTAsia and partners SCANIA to return for a second time this year, after an enthusiastic response last summer.

64 students took part in a new enrichment lesson plan: Climate Change and Biodiversity that complements ACTAsia’s Caring for Life Curriculum (CFL) for schools.

Promoting SDGs through summer camps

The camp activities also addressed the issue of road safety in line with UNESCO’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 3: to halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents by 2030. These SDGs help inform the development of ACTAsia’s CFL Education programmes. Road safety is a particular problem in Jiangxi, where new and faster roads are being rapidly built and upgraded, but limited provision is made for road safety.

Understanding climate change through fun

Climate change and biodiversity guided activities to show children how our actions affect our planet, and how we can build an environmentally friendly future together. Discussion aided understanding of the relevance of very big questions, helping students find alternatives to environmentally damaging behaviours in the context of their own lives.

The children were divided into seven groups, each a colour of the rainbow, and painted huge canvases around environmental themes, triggering critical thinking on the main themes of climate change and biodiversity. They took part with enthusiasm, and the results showed much improved awareness of the root causes of the environmental problems considered.