World Environment Day 2023: How a teen climate crusader battled poverty, abuse after Cyclone Yaas
Across the world, there are millions of children who have been displaced from a stable life by climate-change induced natural calamities
As news of cyclone Mocha advancing towards India’s eastern coast blared from television sets and microphones a few weeks ago, 16-year-old Sikha (name changed), a Green Scout member in her remote village in Bengal’s South 24 Parganas, watched the ominous dark clouds gathered on the horizon.
Cyclones, storms and floods are a way of life in the environmentally fragile zone that Sikha lives in. Year after year, villages in the region have been ravaged, leaving behind a trail of death, destruction of property and infrastructure, damage to the environment and ecosystem and endless misery. Lives and livelihoods have been rebuilt, only to be decimated again the following year or the next.
In 2020, it was Cyclone Amphan, and the following year it was Cyclone Yaas.
Sikha can never forget how her life changed after Yaas. The cyclone had flattened their home, and the incessant rain and flooding that followed submerged whatever remained. When calm returned, her village was in ruins, as far as the eye could see.
The aftermath
Over the next few months, Sikha’s family of five, lived on one watery meal a day. A tarpaulin sheet tied precariously over four bamboo poles was the roof over their heads. For Sikha though, the worst was yet to come.
One dark day, Sikha’s “aunt” told the Class IX student that she would find a good home for her in a neighbouring village, where she would get two meals a day, a roof over her head and also help with studies. She took the unsuspecting girl to an unknown house in an unknown place and left her there.
Back home, when the hapless parents enquired about Sikha, the aunt said she had married off their daughter in a happy family, where she would be taken care of well. Already struggling to provide a square meal for his family and a roof over their heads, the father thought whatever had happened had happened for the best.
A few villages away, the “best” turned out to be hell for Sikha. The husband and the family took turns in physically assaulting her every single day and night. She was made to do chores, kept unfed and not allowed to come out.
Sikha forgot to smile. Actually, she could just about manage to breathe and live. There came a moment when she could take the torture no more — she ran away. The flight to freedom was short-lived, though. Back in her nightmare, the blows reigned free.
Days rolled into several months and the parents hadn’t heard a word about their teenage daughter. When repeated questions to the “aunt” did not work, the family approached Kaajla Janakalyan Samity, a CRY partner and explained the situation. “We took the family to the police. The father narrated the situation. The police told them that if the girl didn’t return on her own in a few days, they would accept a complaint,” said Vivekananda Sahu, project coordinator of Kaajla.
Around the same time, Sikha’s mother received a phone call from an unknown number. The voice on the other side, barely recognizable after almost a year, told a horror story of torture, abuse and a “marriage” of sorts. Sikha could not give the name of the village she was kept confined at, but the neigbour whose phone she was using, mentioned the name.
The Kaajla team swung into action, contacted the Gram Panchayat Pradhan of that particular village and made plans to bring her back. Before they could rescue her, Sikha ran away from hell, and this time she succeeded.
Back home with her parents, the nightmare came out in the open. The aunt, who many in the village say doubles as an “agent”, was nowhere to be found.
A new beginning
In December 2022-January 2023 began a process of recuperation and rehabilitation for Sikha. “The girl was in trauma and suicidal. It took us endless talks to convince her that she could fight back,” said Sahu.
With help and encouragement, the 16-year-old started attending classes at the Antarasha centre, run by Kaajla and CRY. She was admitted to a local school. Antarasha gave Sikha a reason to live and believe. Support classes made up for her learning gap and life-skill sessions helped her become mentally strong.
Sikha attended special sessions where she learned about environmental degradation, global warming, soil erosion and more. She knows now why cyclones, storms and floods have become more frequent than before. She is aware that her village may be decimated again in the aftermath of another Amphaan or Yaas. And she knows how lives can change after a natural calamity. Hers did.
Now a student of Class X, Sikha has joined the Green Scouts team in her village. Conscious of the fragile ecosystem around her, she tries to spread awareness about the little things that we can do to conserve our environment.
People need to know more about why the cyclones happen, and steps that can be taken in daily lives to mitigate the sufferings in the aftermath. Sikha and team convince people to plant trees and nurture them. The more the greenery, the less the amount of carbon dioxide in the air — the easiest remedy to reverse the adverse effects of climate change.
The 16-year-old has stopped the use of plastic in her family and she asks neighbours to do the same. Plastic waste can choke rivers and propel erosion at the edges, the crusader tells people.
Developing new understanding
A climate crisis is a child rights crisis, according to UNICEF. Climate change is the greatest threat facing the world’s children and young people. It poses major threats to their health, nutrition, education and future.
Across the world, there are millions of children like Sikha who have been displaced from a stable life or adversely impacted by a climate-change induced natural calamity.
The important question: What can be done to redress? To begin with, efforts to sustain a livable planet must not only account for the unique needs and vulnerabilities of young people; they must also include them in the solutions. Children have critical skills, experiences and ideas for safer, more sustainable societies.
On World Environment Day, it is our responsibility to groom children like Sikha, who have been victims themselves, as ‘change-makers’ for the environment. Let them learn to use their knowledge and resources available to them to protect and conserve the Earth. Let them carry the mantle of ushering in a better tomorrow for themselves and the generations to follow.
Views expressed are the authors’ own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth.
We are a voice to you; you have been a support to us. Together we build journalism that is independent, credible and fearless. You can further help us by making a donation. This will mean a lot for our ability to bring you news, perspectives and analysis from the ground so that we can make change together.
Can we still handle the truth? Journalism, ‘alternative facts’ and the rise of AI | Lenore Taylor
We all have moments in life when we know something big is happening, that we are stepping into a new and consequential experience, and our mind takes a mental Polaroid, an intensely clear snapshot of what that moment looks like…
Two Hikers on the Camino Del Santiago Find Lasting Love Amid Uncertain Future
The Camino del Santiago is the ironing board of the stress of life—a way to find oneself and direction in life through walking, day after day across the Iberian Peninsula.
However an American and a Dane didn’t find themselves on a hike across the famous European pilgrimage trail, they found each other.
Kjartan Bergqvist, from Denmark, and American Loni Philbrick-Linzmeyer, both experienced the sort of listlessness that causes one to buy a backpack, throw an assortment of worldly objects inside, and travel the world—in their case, both to Spain to hike the 500-mile-long Camino del Santiago.
On their own paths through life at the time, it was something they both felt they had to do alone. He was a 24-year-old medical student destined to seemingly pour over textbooks forever, she, a 29-year-old schoolteacher at a crossroads after a tough breakup.
Both departed from the traditional start point in Paris within days of each other.
“It’s very open on the Camino, it can be as independent or as social as you want or need on the day.” Loni said, recounting her love story to Francesca Street at CNN Travel. “It was weird, it wasn’t love at first sight. I think I ended up forgetting his name later—but certainly there was a moment of, ‘Okay, maybe I’m kind of interested here.’”
That was her first thought when seeing the departing figure of Kjartan Bergqvist, whom she first met in a forested area outside the city of Burgos. Little had been said between the two, apart from a discussion of the weather.
That night, the two crossed paths again in the Camino inn inside Burgos, and they thought that maybe they’d explore the city the next day—which they did, after a sleepless night for Kjarten, and a coffee that morning.
ANOTHER EUROPEAN LOVE STORY: Love in the Time of Corona: An American Traveler Survives Italian Lockdown, and Finds True Love
That set off, as they explain to CNN, a difficult 24 hours deciding whether or not they would fulfill their original intentions to walk the Camino alone, or follow their connection, which was immediate and joyous, and walk the trail together.
As it turned out, they, and a Canadian named Liz, chose the latter option.
Commenting on how their trip evolved, Kjartan told CNN’s Francesca that Santiago, the endpoint of the pilgrimage trail, “didn’t really matter anymore.”
“Those three weeks felt a lot longer, in a good way, a very good way,” says Kjartan. “I was just flying so high—obviously very much in love, and it’s summer, and there’s no place you have to be other than where you are at the moment.”
MORE TOUCHING LOVE STORIES: She’s Happily Married with 6 Kids–All Because of a Text Sent to the Wrong Number
After reaching Santiago, the pair decided that sharing contact info, or even agreeing to a long-term relationship, none of it seemed even remotely acceptable. So Kjarten asked Loni then and there, in the streets of Santiago, if she would be his wife.
This story happened 10 years ago. Now, Loni Bergqvist lives in Denmark and works as an education consultant while raising three bilingual children.
They used to often talk about keeping the “spirit of the Camino”—the spirit of waking up every day with a single objective, without any other considerations. But as time went on, they began to focus more and more on the future. There’s a saying that “the Camino provides.” The Bergqvists believe it provided each other.
Read the whole story here on CNN…
SHARE This Beautiful Love Story With Your Friends…
Alpha Centauri, the star system closest to our sun
Our closest stellar neighbors are the 3 stars that are the Alpha Centauri system. They lie just over 4 light-years away (25 trillion miles or 38 trillion km).
The post Alpha Centauri, the star system closest to our sun first appeared on EarthSky.
London Lonely Girls Club Gains Thousands of New Members for Picnics, Drinks, and Game Nights
A newcomer to big city life started a Facebook group to make new friends and it grew to 20,000 people in just a few years. The London Lonely Girls Club was founded by 26-year-old Holly Cooke, who arrived from Stoke-on-Trent, a big city in itself, but provincial compared to London. From 2018 to 2022, it […]
The post London Lonely Girls Club Gains Thousands of New Members for Picnics, Drinks, and Game Nights appeared first on Good News Network.
She Reunites Families with Lost Heirlooms for FreeâReturning Over 500 Items to Thrilled Relatives
Chelsey Brown likes to trawl flea markets and thrift shops for interesting items, but not for decorations or collections. As an amateur genealogist, she enjoys tracking down the owners or the descendants of the owners and reuniting them with their lost heirlooms. The Manhattan interior designer claims to have returned more than 500 objects to […]
The post She Reunites Families with Lost Heirlooms for FreeâReturning Over 500 Items to Thrilled Relatives appeared first on Good News Network.
Opinion: How Mexico’s Indigenous communities fight climate change – Los Angeles Times
Mexico’s Indigenous communities are on the front lines of ecological preservation. Many still live on their ancestral lands and struggle against development projects that would destroy some of the world’s most precious ecosystems that they call home. Their resistance has…
A very American death: how Caleb Blair lost his life in the Phoenix heat
Caleb Blair entered the Circle K gas station in Phoenix asking for help. “I can’t breathe, I’m hot, I need to sit down. I can’t breathe,” he told the male cashier. He was sweaty, panting heavily, and struggling to stand…
From Umoja, Kenya to India, climate change has led to domestic violence – The Washington Post
Comment on this story Comment Gift Article UMOJA, KENYA — Pilot Lenaigwanai covers her mouth as she speaks. She is trying to hide her broken tooth, a bitter reminder of all she endured before finding refuge at a shelter for…
Grace for the Day: Global warming judgment – Muskogee Daily Phoenix
When the first atomic bomb was detonated over Japan, there was a large group of scientists who were afraid it would start a reaction that would not end, engulfing much or most of the planet. The nuclear age ushered in…
Recent Comments