[Lifestyle] ‘Children make an impact’: what one Cambodian girl’s story can teach kids about the climate crisis

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It can be difficult to talk to young people about rising seas and temperatures, but a new book from Save the Children’s Wonderbooks series that tells a more personal story is helping to open up the conversation

 

When a ferocious storm sweeps across Seima’s village and her big brother Rainsey can’t be found anywhere, it’s Seima’s tin can telephone that saves the day – and the year 3 pupils at Longsight community primary school were impressed, especially as she was only five years old at the time.

“Children are capable of doing anything,” one said, when they were asked what the story of Seima and the Storm, one of the books from Save the Children’s Wonderbooks series, told them about children.

 

“Children are brave,” volunteered another. “Children can make an impact,” came a third voice.

But Seima is more than a character in a story: she’s a real little girl in Cambodia. Each story in the Wonderbooks series is based on the life of a real child who Save the Children works with in one of many countries around the world, and introduces young readers to themes such as diversity, inclusion, resilience, the effects of poverty and, in the case of Seima and the Storm, climate breakdown. This gave the teachers at Longsight the perfect way to discuss how rising temperatures and extreme weather are making life increasingly challenging for communities such as Seima’s. “For our children, it really connected us to Seima,” says Rukhsana Ahmed, the Manchester school’s executive headteacher.

 

 

Seima’s floating village is on Tonlé Sap, the largest freshwater lake in south-east Asia, with a surrounding region that is home to more than a million people. Their lives have always been shaped by water, but higher temperatures, drought, pollution, overfishing by commercial trawlers and environmental damage have led to devastating drops in the fish stocks the vast majority rely on for their livelihood.

 

“Fishing is the main source of income and food security, but climate change is making it harder and harder,” says Reaksmey Hong, Save the Children’s country director in Cambodia. “Once there’s no water, or it’s too hot, once it’s stormy or raining all day, that sole source of income is not possible – but communities here don’t have a coping mechanism for that.”

 

Save the Children is determined to help families like Seima’s adapt to the challenges they face, and educate children on ways to take their future into their own hands. Hong says the charity is now running multiple initiatives in the region to promote access to inclusive and quality early childhood, primary and lower-secondary education. Thanks to its GREEN project, pupils now get lessons about the climate emergency and the environment, and take to the water to conduct awareness-raising campaigns and collect rubbish.

Besides education, adds Hong, Save the Children is supporting the floating community in diversifying its income beyond fishing – working in partnership with them to create 2,250 new employment opportunities outside of the industry. The charity has also helped repair storm-damaged schools and installed solar powered fans to keep children cool during the dry season’s increasingly intense heat.

 

But climate shocks still have the power to blight Cambodian children’s education. Schools hit by flash floods have been forced to close, and more than once the government has reduced school hours during heatwaves over fears about pupil health and safety. Children on Tonlé Sap travel to school by boat, and when there are storms it is sometimes simply too dangerous to go. “We talked about how climate change would impact on a child’s life at such a visceral level,” says Ahmed.

 

[https://www.theguardian.com/grow-your-childs-world-with-wonderbooks/2023/mar/01/children-make-an-impact-what-one-cambodian-girls-story-can-teach-kids-about-the-climate-crisis]