The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) Mada Hills, an NGO, has sensitised 100 stakeholders on climate change realities and impact to enhance understanding of climate related issues in their communities.
Mr Ango Adamu, Executive Secretary, YMCA Mada Hills, while speaking at the Town Hall meeting in Akwanga LGA, said YMCA has introduced new approach of dramatising climate change realities to drive home better understanding of the participants.
Adamu said that small scale farmers lacked adequate information on climate change to understand what was responsible for the weather changes affecting their farming activities and other means of livelihood.
“YMCA and ASSAPIN supported by Oxfam felt it is important to continue to mobilise and educate rural communities on climate change realities through new approach – drama presentation to improve their understanding.
“Because small scale farmers lack the capacity to mitigate risks/disasters cause by climate change such as flood, drought, diseases, some community members even have wrong belief and myth about climate change and its realities.
“We have similar interactive meeting in Kokona LGA, today we are here in Akwanga, this is necessary because most of the farming population in these communities do not seem to understand what is responsible for the weather changes,” he said.
According to Adamu, the choice of drama presentation become necessary because it considers as an important community engagement strategy to pass information across, change perception about climate change, remove myth and promotes believe in scientific data.
“We want to use drama to promote social awareness through climate change storytelling by exploring different social practices and perspectives to help break down barriers between different groups and foster great empathy and understanding,” he said.
Also speaking, Joshua Jonathan, National President, Association of Small Scale Agro Producers in Nigeria (ASSAPIN), said the interactive meeting aimed at enhancing the capacity of the participants to build resilience against climate change in their communities.
“We are building the capacity of the participants so that they can raise support on their own and also leverage on other supports to build up their communities through tree planting to minimize impact of climate change,” he said.
He charged the participants comprised of farmers, community leaders and women leaders to step down the training to other communities members to participate in tree planting to mitigate impact of climate change.
Mrs Nancy Abdullahi, Director of Agriculture, Kokona LGA, said that the council would intensify sensitisation campaign against falling of tree for charcoal production and encouraging tree planting to mitigate impact of climate change.
Mr Safianu Isa, Chairman of Akwanga LGA, represented by the council supervisory councilor on Agriculture, Jerry Ibrahim, said the training was timely and pledged to partner with organisers to work towards mitigating climate change impact.
Esther Rize, Joseph Bawa and Glane Madaki, participants from Kokona both pledged to step down the training to other communities members to plant trees and take precaution on activities that would have negative impact on their communities.
Janet Lande, a participant from Akwanga said irregular rainfall pattern affected their farming activities, which resulted in low yield in the local government, noting that people should take a deliberate effort to plant trees to reduce impact of climate change.
The interactive meeting featured drama presentation on climate change to enhance understanding of the 100 participants drawn from different communities in Kokona and Akwanga local government areas.