Australia Awards alumni to expand climate action and environmental protection projects
Australia Awards recently offered grants to the three winning alumni teams of Regional Alumni Workshop 2018 for South and West Asia.
As the second grants issued under the Regional Alumni Workshop 2018, the additional funding will support alumni in expanding their projects on environmental protection and climate action.
Alumni teams will also be using the knowledge and skills they gained in November in 2018 at the Regional Alumni Workshop in Bhutan to help them enhance and expand on their activities.
The winning team from Bangladesh is implementing a project titled ‘Community Empowerment and Action Against Illegal Stone Extraction to Preserve the Natural Environment in Bangladesh’. Pallab Chakma, a member of the team, said ‘we don't consider our work about the environment as a standalone project, we think beyond. We will keep our fighting spirit alive to save Mother Earth. We believe that, if we stand together and fight together, we could bring positive change to our society.’
The winning team from Pakistan is raising awareness and facilitating community engagement and action on environmental issues by using both digital and traditional approaches. ‘The additional grant will be used for a new digital challenge contest and for community engagement/policy advocacy campaigns on social media. We expect to incorporate the learnings from other South Asian countries obtained at the Regional Alumni Workshop into the next phase of project implementation,’ said Samar Hasan, who completed a Short Course on Business Incubation Management at the University of Queensland in 2017.
The winning team from Sri Lanka is working on a project to empower school children to be leaders for environmental protection. The project has two major focuses: to create a climate action group consisting of both school staff and students; and to support curriculum development in subject areas relevant to climate change.
Finally, selected members of the winning alumni teams will be supported by the Australia Awards to participate in the Climate Reality Leadership Training in Brisbane in June 2019. As a new professional development opportunity, the training will help the alumni gain new skills and knowledge – aiding them in becoming greater advocates for climate action. The training will also be a great opportunity for the alumni to meet, share ideas, and form new networks with world-renowned scientists and communicators.