The Global Just Recovery Gathering took place in Ghana under the theme ‘Igniting Student Activism amid COVID-19 Pandemic’ organized by Patience Agyekum and Daniel Abugre Anyorigya, who are both volunteers of 350-Ghana Reducing Our Carbon.
The program targeted young people at the tertiary level. 350 GROC’s campus groups have been dormant since the outbreak of COVID-19 hence this was a great opportunity to re-engage with them and recruit new members into the movement.
The watch party was held in 2 forms; firstly, a physical meeting that was scheduled for the first day of the Global Just Recovery Gathering, 9th April 2021, at the Deeper Life Campus Church of the University of Professional Studies, Accra [UPSA] between the hours of 9:00 GMT and 12:30 GMT. That hosted a total number of 15 participants. The session taken on the Global Just Recovery Gathering was the Campaign Storytelling by Grace Jeremy [Senior Trainer. Campaign Bootcamp].
A post-discussion was held in relation to the session with participants sharing their lessons. Among them were Narh Nancy Mamley who talked about The Story of Self, Us and Now and Jessica Duodo highlighting the essence of consistency in campaign messages.
Secondly, a two-day virtual screening from the 10th to 11th of April held on zoom and FB between the hours of 16:00 GMT and 19:15GMT. That hosted 20 participants in total. The sessions of focus were Building Digital Campaigning and Organizing Tools for the Global Movement session by Nadia Gorchakova and Sara Wellbore, Towards an Ecosocialist Recovery, as well as the session on Building climate storytelling and your own climate legacy and The People v. Climate Change: advancing climate justice through the courts.
During post-discussion, participants such as Frank Koomson, a student of the University of Ghana, listed: the need to use professional equipment for videos and audios in campaigns – the work should be professionally produced, paying much attention to the contents, taking into consideration the younger ones – help teachers put up short film lectures during class sessions and, using social media platforms such as Twitter (hashtags) and TikTok.
The second session was on the topic, Towards an Ecosocialist Recovery. Claribel Nancy shared that “international solidarity will be the best way to help solve climate injustice. We must hold each other’s climate issues at heart and with a united force we can STOP CLIMATE INJUSTICE.”
A few challenges came about, that is; Students were preoccupied with their examinations which were taking place within that week or in subsequent days, as well as, the poor internet connectivity at various geographical locations that limited others who were not able to join the physical hotspot to attend the virtual ones
We learned a great lesson as we hosted the watch party, that, offering a space like that for people to gather in the community alongside packages to support participants was a motivating factor in uplifting the movement, as most of us are still recovering from the impacts of COVID-19. We will continue supporting the movement and to know more, follow the Renewable Energy for Communities campaign. We will be recruiting students for the 350 campus groups in partnership with 350 GROC.
By Patience Agyekum and Daniel Abugre Anyorigya, 350 GROC