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WE Can Change the World
When people have ideas to make the world a better place, most of the time if they are not wealthy or have a position of power, their idea never takes off the ground. That all changed with WE, an international charity that empowers people to make the world a better place. So far some of their accomplishments include giving over 1 million people access to clean water and sanitation, 200 thousand children education, and over 14 million dollars fundraised by students supporting local and global issues.
One of the main focuses of WE is in the educational field, specifically supporting teachers with free resources to help empower their students. They have multiple modules that teachers can access through their WE Schools website, which allows anyone to sign up and use their resources with no cost. Thye partner with OneNote, a popular note taking program that I showcased during this screencast. Below is an image of the introductory page to WE Schools, which outlines their mission as well as the features they have.
The tool that stuck out to me was the WE Schools Foundational Module, which helps teaches foster a safe and inclusive classroom. Educators talk a lot about how important it is the be inclusive and the benefits of it but sometimes fail to give actual strategies. This module gives tips on how to be supportive, as well as 5 lessons on how to create a caring classroom. For teachers who may struggle with coming up with ideas, this module is the perfect starting point to change their classroom for the better. On the other hand, for teachers who may have become indifferent of students or fail to make changes in their classroom, this module can help them come to understand the importance of inclusion and how WE is helping ensure its success.
The WE Charity exists to only help make the world a better place and students in our schools are the future benefactors and contributors to it. As a teacher, it is our responsibility to help foster inclusion in our classrooms; the foundational module is where it starts.
How SDGs address Climate Change as a humanity issue: Goal 13
Peace and prosperity are about more than a flourishing economy. It all starts with saving the planet. Reducing the amount of climate-related natural disasters and increasing the quality of human health are the major stepping stones on the road to achieving global prosperity and zero hunger.
These goals are on the list of the UN’s highest priorities in addressing climate change. The other priorities include food and security protection, protecting terrestrial and wetland ecosystems, expanding freshwater resources and contributing to key economic sectors and services that directly fund climate change administration. The climate change aspect of Sustainable Development Goals is now more crucial than ever, considering that the pandemic.
According to the UN’s goal to “End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture”, 70-161 million more people had likely experienced hunger in 2020. This does not get any better with recent natural disasters like 2017’s Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, especially when the global average temperature was 34 degrees F above the pre-industrial baseline in 2020, further contributing to the growing climate crisis. Rising greenhouse gas emissions also contribute to this, and the UN suggests that by 2050, changing global economies will have to become carbon neutral as goal to battle climate change.
But the global climate change conversation is not all about the daily setbacks we face. Between 2015 and 2018, climate finance increased by 10%, which makes its annual average $48.7 billion. This monumental sum arguably reflects the way governments and citizens alike are taking climate change and its domino effect impacts more seriously. With all of this funding, there is hope for real change.
With Swedish activist Greta Thunberg’s recent popularity, the question of morality has entered this conversation, making more people aware of just how far-reaching the effects of climate change are if it took a teenager to make government officials wake up to the real crisis that the Earth faces. This saw real progress with the UN’s E-Course on Harnessing Climate and SDGs Synergies, which not only engages policymakers with the effects of climate change but also addresses Sustainable Development Goals as a whole.
The goals can be reached by never letting climate change leave the mainstream conversation, both in society and politics, much in the way Greta Thunberg has done. And when we follow the resources found in Goal 13, educating ourselves is the first step we can do as individuals to fight this crisis that affects not only the Earth but human rights itself.
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