The mid of August Blue Green Coastal Resource Centre with the support of Rafto Foundation and IHRB initiated a youth development training program with 19 bright and enthusiastic indigenous coastal youth from Trivandrum, Kerala, many of whom belonging to our fishing communities, to learn and share about issues that concern them in their day to day lives.
Through theoretical sessions, games, art works, theatre and rap music and first-hand conversation from a group of artisanal fishers, we discussed topics like port development, mechanized fishing, industrial waste/pollution and offshore wind parks’ impacts on small-scale fishers whose livelihoods and culture depend on and are so closely linked to the sea and are now affected.
We dived into how and what types of remedy can be sought when impacts occur and how youth can do their own community-led research on issues that affect them. Using exercises from International Accountability Project‘s community action guides on community led research and from problem trees to power mapping. Three brilliant research ideas were shared by the youth participants at the end of two days:
(1) air and ocean pollution by a chemical plant
(2) drug abuse among coastal youth
(3) devastating impact of Cyclone Ockhi on small-scale fishermen
The participants were inspired by hearing directly from artisanal small-scale fishermen about the challenges they face and why youth need to document their knowledge which is getting lost. The coastal resource centre seeks to give a platform for the local youth to work on documentation and research of their indigenous-led knowledge and work for the protection of their customary rights over natural resources.
The workshop has been so much fun and energizing. It was amazing to see how articulate and creative the youth participants were about human rights and climate issues in Kerala and all over India.
It gave us immense pleasure to share that the key outcome of the training programme is the institutionalising of CIYN (Coastal Indigenous Youth Network). Most of the talented young individuals are excited to continue their work and aim to become the future defenders of the ocean and coastal Indigenous communities.
Thanks to all participants for their enthusiasm, energy and for sharing their stories, and to our facilitators Tulika and Vaishnavi Varadarajan and co-organizers Johnson Jament, Leno Ignatious and Romer Ignatious of BlueGreen, Coastal Resource Centre.
“This is the first training that I am attending of this nature. I was able to know more about responsible business conduct. The Resource persons are very friendly and the sessions are really interesting”
“After the participation in the training program which paved a way for coastal youth activism, the artisanal fishers session was really inspiring and influenced me a lot.”
“I learned a lot from the training program and I got more insights too… I will definitely share these insights with our community members and I was able to build a network with several youths from our community and with the resource persons and Blue Green Coastal Resource Centre.”
