New Food security and Climate change challenge badge

WAGGGS and the FAO have developed a new Food Security and Climate Change Challenge Badge to make young people aware of the issues of environmental protection and food security and inspire them to be an active part of solving the problems.

The Badge curriculum is now available to download from this website. It is divided into three categories:

• Our Climate: a selection of activities to help young people understand weather and climate
• Our Food: activities to learn more about the consequences of our food and life-style choices on our planet
• Our World: ideas to help your group carry out projects and programmes in your local communities

The badge design is based on the drawing of 16 year old Chan Hiu Wing from Hong Kong, who won the international drawing competition, in which 1,400 entries were received from 46 countries around the world.

There are numerous activities you can take part in whilst doing the badge and taking action to counter climate change, including signing onto the “Unite for Climate Portal”  and the “Seal the Deal” campaign.

The work has started

The 1st Lioni Group in Italy was one of the first troops to complete the pilot testing of the badge curriculum. The group worked hard to reduce their impact on the environment and to analyze their food choices. These themes have now become a priority in their educational programme.

During the July 2009 summer camp ‘Save our planet’ held near Naples, Guides and Scouts recreated the adventures of a cartoon hero Wall-e and made natural soap, used biodegradable detergents, identified ways to reduce their consumption of water and energy, made recycled paper, created musical instruments with aluminum cans and used the “Reuse-Reduce-Recycle” theory (3R’s) as a solution to help resolve the problem of ever-growing landfills.

As a reward for being one of the first groups to complete the badge curriculum the Guides and Scouts from Lioni were invited to attend the World Food Day celebration at the FAO in Rome on 16 October. The unit will represent the groups that participated internationally in the testing of this badge (Canada, Thailand and the UK). They will be awarded with the Badge and receive a Certificate of Completion.

The badge curriculum is part of the “Our Climate, Our Food, Our World” initiative between FAO, WAGGGS, YUNGA and other partners, which develops educational resources and activities to engage youth in issues of climate change and food scarcity. The initiative has been made possible thanks to the support of the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida).