- Winning letters will be submitted to the Universal Postal Union where they will compete with other winners across the globe participating in a similar competitions.
Mbabane – In its effort to combat the climate change crisis the world over, ESCCOM and partners are giving young people a voice to contribute solutions to the catastrophe through a letter writing competition.
The Eswatini Communications Commission (ESCCOM) together with its partners in the Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs, World Vision, UNICEF, Macmillan Eswatini, Eswatini Post and Telecommunications as well as Premier are giving young people between the ages 9 to 18 a chance to voice out their experiences on climate change and also make contributions on how the country can help the situation.
This is the second edition of the competition that kicked off in 2021 and this year’s theme is “Write a letter to someone influential explaining why and how they should take action on the climate crisis”.
The competition, which was launched at Hilton Hotel and will be begin in February 21 and close on March 21, giving young people a whole month to write the letter and stand a chance to win electronic gadgets that include a laptop, cell-phone and others.
Worth mentioning is that this year, young people living with disabilities have also been included and it was highlighted that they will not be competing directly with the enabled but they will be competing among themselves.
Winning letters will be submitted to the Universal Postal Union where they will compete with other winners across the globe participating in a similar competitions.
Making his remarks during the launch of the competition, the Ministry’s Under Secretary Emmanuel Mbingo said climate change remains the biggest threat affecting human kind and the Kingdom of Eswatini has not been spared from the catastrophe.
He said between the year 2000 and 2015, there has been a notable increase in temperatures and the amount of rainfall, which affect all sectors. He highlighted that the agriculture sector was getting the hardest blow highlighted by the El-nino in 2015 that left a trail of destruction, resulting in the Government declaring a state of emergency.
“About 80 per cent of households were affected and the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) shrank considerably. It is upon all of us to join the rest of the world in helping the situation and we encourage young people to participate in this competition and contribute to this fight,” he said.
The letter should be at least a page and a half to a maximum of two pages and it can be written in both English and Siswati. Letters should then be posted to ESCCOM at Box 125 Mbabane.
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