Background: Pollution in the Marshall Islands
The Marshall Islands faces numerous environmental challenges – one of which is pollution of the land and ocean. Although efforts have been made at the national level and existing institutions have continued to do their part to address this problem, there still remains a need for every individual and local community to understand the full implications of pollution and the links of recycling and waste management to the global problem of climate change.
Our Solution: Youth leadership
Our Earth Champions program recognizes that there are solutions to waste management that exists at the local level amongst youth leadership. This program selects one youth from each of the villages on Majuro Atoll – 7 in total – and they receive tailored support to develop projects related to waste management in the RMI. These leaders are given an overview of the available environmental resources on island, then small grants to carry out local level projects in their villages. They also conduct outreach to ensure community engagement throughout their project. Participants leave the program with skills in project management, grant writing, community organizing, and environmental leadership.
Earth Champions Video
Below is a video created by our youth media intern for the Jo-Jikum program. In addition to enlisting and engaging youth environmentalists and activists, we also do our best to prioritize working with up and coming youth media specialists.
Earth Champions Program Round 1
In 2018, our first Earth Champion program was completed.
At the local level, our Earth Champions made a big impact. This first round of Earth Champions worked closely with the Majuro Atoll Waste Company (MAWC) in identifying the need for waste containers to the villages of Laura, Ajeltake, Woja, and Rairok. These villages had nowhere to put their waste, much of it ending up in the lagoon or in burnt piles, and it was difficult for MAWC employees to pick up their trash since not many households had or could afford large waste containers. Thanks to the Earth Champions project, at least 43 waste containers were built for the four villages.
In addition to important projects at the local level, our Earth Champions have gone on to represent our nation at the Conference of the Parties (COP), the international conference on climate change, as well as the One Young World Conference, where they participated in indigenous and youth-led actions, spoke on panels, and delivered interviews for international media outlets. They’ve been instrumental in organizing climate related workshops amongst college students, as well as island wide climate marches. They were also instrumental in organizing the first climate social media campaign – the 1.5 to stay alive campaign.
