The New Citizen Newsletter #13
“Citizenship is not a question of what passport we hold; it is an idea of who we are as human beings.” — Jon Alexander
🐝 Taking a walk in the park 🐞
Governments are failing to uphold their Paris Climate Agreement pledges, but citizens are finding ways to save the environment without them. In London, naturalist and broadcaster Chris Packham used social media to organise the People’s Walk for Wildlife, a public event to raise awareness about man-made damage to the ecosystem and workshop potential solutions. You can read his manifesto here.
Source: The Ecologist.
🏡 Teaching kids to build rooftop farms 🍓
As Uganda rapidly urbanises, local residents are looking to their roofs to find space to continue farming. Diana Nambatya, a professor in public health, first started an urban farm in 2010 to save money, grow vegetables and generate biogas. When neighbours started asking about her project she decided to turn it into a demonstration centre where women and local kids are taught how to create their own urban farms.
Source: The Guardian.
🎠 Transforming a landfill into a community centre 🧗🏾♀️
Ulaanbaatar’s northern ger district is home to some of the most impoverished children in the world. After moving into the area, construction worker Sodnomsengee Ulziitogtork decided to clear an informal landfill and unearthed an artificial lake. Over two years, he transformed the site into a community and cultural park where kids can play with each other, ice skate on the lake and learn how to make films.
Today, more than 6,000 children regularly come to play in the park and Ulziitogtork continues to find new ways to improve it.
Source: The Diplomat. Thanks to Didem Tali for the tip.
🕌 Rethinking citizenship 🐈
This week, we’ve been in Istanbul, home to 20% of the Syrian refugees who have fled their homes. We met with Small Projects Istanbul, a grassroots community centre that assists displaced families that are struggling to integrate into Turkish society. So far, they’ve helped more than 200 families navigate the byzantine Turkish bureaucracy and have assisted women to develop professional skills.
Learn about their social enterprise projects here.
