HERE COME'S SEPTEMBER

 

FROM ESA'ALA TO NEW YORK

September – setting her sights high

September Genevieve Kelokelo has been chosen to represent the young people of Papua New Guinea at the UN HLPF event to be held in New York, United States of America. She has been invited by the Don Bosco Green Alliance to be part of a panel discussion on SDG 13. The topic of the panel is 'Youth Aspirations & Climate Urgency'. She shares with us her background, concerns and dreams.

 BRIEF LIFE STORY

My name is September Genevieve Kelokelo and I am 23 years of age. I come from Bunama Ward on Normanby Island, Esa’ala District, in Milne Bay Province. I am the seventh child from a family of eight. Though there are many of us in the family, both parents raised the whole lot of us up to love and respect the natural environment.

I started formal education in 2002 at Alotau Elementary School then kept moving from school to school as I advanced to the next level of education. In 2016, I graduated from Don Bosco Technological Institute with a Diploma in Electronics.

Finding employment around the nation did not interest me so I decided to return home and help out with the youths of Kurada Parish.

 

ISSUES/EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA AND ABROAD

The majority of the nation’s population live in rural areas and depend mostly on the natural environment for their livelihood. Many suffer due to the greed and selfishness of others in caring for the nature. Often times when we say ‘Issues/Effects of Climate Change’, we usually think of the increase in temperatures and rise-in-sea level. We do not consider the daily sufferings that we face as part of the effects of climate change. Some issues and effects that are related to climate change can be;

§  Violence Against Women

Men beating up their wives for not providing enough food for the family. The women cannot do much due to the soils being poisoned and can’t be cultivated or either the harvest is too little due to lack of sufficient nutrients in the soil and not proper temperatures for the crops to grow.

§  Mothers and Families Working Extra Hard

The activities and influence of foreigners have destroyed the natural vegetation and has brought about more problems and burden for the nation and the globe as a whole. The fertile soils and the natural environment are slowly vanishing from the face of the earth. This has resulted in mothers and families working extra hard to provide food, water, shelter and to also clothe the family. The lands for cultivating and the fresh air with its right temperatures for crops to grow in have being poisoned by logging, mining and many other hazardous activities. Every day, we see lots of mothers working extra hard to make sure that they are able to sustain and provide for their families. 

§  Foreign Influence, Easy Lifestyles

In Papua New Guinea, the influence of foreign lifestyles is taking its toll on the way we think and do things. We want an easy lifestyle of living. We do not want to work. All we want is machines or robots doing the work for us and in doing so, they pollute the air with poisonous emissions of gases and chemicals. Without much thought and ignorance to nature, we slowly kill ourselves with the food that we eat, the things that we drink, the air that we breathe and the lack of exercise. Foreign influence and lifestyles have influenced the standards of living conditions here in Papua New Guinea and we are already losing our cultural identity, dignity and our HOME PLANET.

§  Lost Beauty 

Due to human activities which are causing climate change, we have lost the beauty of the planet.

§  Diseases and sicknesses 

Most of the diseases and sicknesses that the people of Papua New Guinea have nowadays are foreign diseases and sicknesses. This is due to changes in temperatures and foreign lifestyles. 

 

SIMPLE THINGS THAT I DO TO REDUCE CLIMATE CHANGE

My daily actions either mitigates or aggravates Climate change.  This is how my family and I care for our natural surroundings at Bunama.

Since my home is in a rural setting, we do not have a lot of non-biodegradable rubbish but whenever someone returns from the town area with lots of shopping of goods, we are always mindful of the plastics, cans and non-biodegradable rubbish. 

My family and I usually reuse the plastics to nurse fruit trees, for shopping at the market, collecting greens and putting them inside or either using them to store some other things such as clothes and books. We also use them as the sail of small sailing canoes.

The cans of tinned food are used to make graters for hard betelnuts, coconuts or either cassava. At times when we see that the cans are not of use, we dispose them into the old pit toilet.

The cartons are used to make chicken nest or either for our cats and dogs to sleep in. Also we use them for packing other staff such as books or mustards when travelling to the town of Alotau.

We use the debris that float up from the oceans to build seawalls along the beach where we live.

During holidays or whenever we all return home, we always make sure that no one cuts trees or either cut the plants that are along the beach or does unnecessary cutting down of forest. 

We plant coconuts and other trees that are capable of growing along the coast. Most times when we are walking where the swampy areas and the mangrove seeds (propagule) fall, we usually get them and push them into the mud for them to grow.

We all have different beliefs, customs and traditions so we also use this to safeguard and protect our natural surroundings. One of the beliefs which has being passed down from my grandparents is that whenever we do lose one of our pets, we bury them along the beach so that when the waves come up the shore and see the dead animals buried, with due respect to them, they slowly reverse back to the oceans.

Food peelings are used for mulch. Leaves and biodegradable rubbish are used to cover the swampy areas of my home.

Personally, what I do most to mitigate climate change in my own community, town and nation as a whole is I try not to forget how I was raised by my parents to love and respect the environment and to also live a simple lifestyle and be as simple as I can.

TAKING SMALL STEPS AT A TIME

To advocate to others about this issue will be quite tough in the first place but how can I help save the nation, the world and our home planet if I am reluctant to stand up for what is right? This is a tough question for me and I cannot be the cause of the downfall for those whose trust are in me.

Starting small is the first step that I am and will take to bring about change. Being an educated and well-raised person, I need to impart the knowledge to others but not only through words but to turn the words into actions. 

Quoting from St. Teresa of Calcutta, “It’s not about how much you do, but how much love you put into what you do that counts” and “God doesn’t require us to succeed, he only requires that you try”.

God does not require me to succeed in all that I do especially in being a better advocator of Climate Change. I only need to try to take the first step to love what I am doing and then to impart this love for the environment to others to make a change.

After attending the High-Level Political Forum in New York, I hope to learn some basic skills and methods on how we can reduce, reuse and recycle non-biodegradable rubbish. Also I hope to be a good person in sharing and caring for the environment and to reduce the effects of climate change.