African kids are the world’s biggest demographic and they have the potential to radically transform our world for the better, but the 500+ million kids in Africa are disproportionately affected by one of our most pressing global challenges: climate change. While Africa contributes the least in global greenhouse emissions (2 to 3%), compared to the U.S. alone (27%), most African communities depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, and rising temperatures have increased food insecurity, unemployment, and contributed to the world’s first ‘climate change conflict’ in Darfur.
Climate change threatens children’s survival, development, nutrition, education, and access to health care – all of which are children’s rights. Actions must begin with the knowledge and understanding of the costs of inaction. It is vital to empower kids in Africa, the world’s biggest demographic and with the most collective power to lead a movement, to be knowledgeable about the effects of climate change so they can become activists and demand for a more equitable planet.
Partnerships to Build Brains and Create Change
At Ubongo, we believe that education should transcend the acquisition of knowledge and skills and equip kids to take ownership of their dreams, aspirations, and futures. By co-creating with partners and delivering edutainment (educational entertainment) at scale, we equip Africa’s next generation with the educational foundation, critical skills and positive mindsets to change their own lives and communities for the better. All of our content is developed through a research-based co-creation process, which utilizes focus groups and rigorous user testing throughout production, to ensure effective and meaningful messaging for target audiences.
Our commitment lies in helping Africa’s 500 million kids develop skills and mindsets through top quality, localized edutainment to address pressing issues like climate change, among others. Climate change is a global crisis that exacerbates most other challenges such as poverty, hunger and malnutrition, loss of natural resources and gender inequality. In every crisis, children are the most vulnerable. They need our support to better understand the role that they may be called on to play in order to ultimately stop the advance of climate change. That is why, over the years, we have worked with like-minded partners to address different contributors and aspects of climate change that are most relevant in African contexts through our content.In 2017, we partnered with the European Union (EU) to produce an episode of our edutainment programme Ubongo Kids on Clean and Dirty Energy. Ubongo Kids is an edu-cartoon that targets kids aged 7 – 14 and teaches STEM topics, 21st century life skills and character strengths while helping kids find the fun in learning. The episode we created with the EU received over 19 million views on free-to-air TV in over 15 African countries and over 51,000 views on YouTube. The episode was successful because we contextualized it to the day-to-day experiences of children in sub-Saharan Africa, like riding public buses that emit a lot of fumes, or cooking with firewood and charcoal.
In our research for the episode, we found that there are a lot of misperceptions about what is “clean” and “dirty” energy. For instance, one adult said that clean energy was cooking with charcoal and kerosene gas. Therefore, the goal of the episode was to clarify that, as misinformation is a barrier to sustainability. Furthermore, we illustrated the dangers of pollution by showing how a beloved character, the rapping giraffe Uncle T, developed a severe cough due to the pollution around him. As Uncle T’s health improved, so did our audience’s knowledge of clean and dirty energy sources.
We’ve also partnered with commercial companies like SCANIA East Africa (a subsidiary of Scania CV AB that deals in premium buses, coaches and trucks of all applications) to build awareness around everyday issues that contribute to climate change, like pollution. Our partnership resulted in the production of an episode on pollution as part of Season 5 of Ubongo Kids. Season 5 centers around the principle of Utu (Shared Humanity), with episodes covering different values, namely: social responsibility and cooperation, empathy and resilience, patience and equality, integrity, self-efficacy and self-esteem, gratitude and generosity, courage, respect, self-control, valuing others and peace-making, compassion and survival of community.
These themes are incredibly important and relevant to the state of the world we find ourselves in. Each utu-themed episode encourages the practice of utu principles in our daily lives. All of our actions and the results of our actions are interconnected. Through these utu-themed episodes, kids learn about connections across borders and how their actions in their locality can impact the earth in another part of the world. For the pollution episode, the message conveyed is that, the little things we do add up and can have a greater impact, and the effects can all be connected between land, water and air. The incorporated utu theme is self-control; the ability to control actions, impulses or behaviors that impact the environment such as, burning trash. The episode served as an introduction to the issue in a way that is practical and easy for kids to digest. At the end of each episode of Season 5, kids are inspired to form utu clubs with peers within their communities to take actions that count.
Each episode comes with learning objectives and questions for kids to discuss and an utu activity to be completed. Through utu club activities, kids learn to care for the environment, practice good health and hygiene habits, and live compassionately with others, to name a few. Utu clubs are a fun and interactive way for kids to build knowledge and skills in STEM, do good in their community and work together to act with utu.
Throughout the season, characters work towards how they can each express utu, showcasing how utu lies within us all. For many Africans, the concept of utu provides guidance on how to live a good, moral life. From focus groups with parents of our Ubongo Kids viewers, we discovered that awareness of this centuries-old concept has been declining in East Africa. Utu contributes to a life well lived, and for it to be lost in future generations would be a calamity.
World leaders have an obligation to make radical changes to shift the world away from fossil fuels and towards clean energy, to protect our environment, and to promote sustainable consumption. It is vital that we empower kids to hold leaders at both the global and local level accountable, and draw worldwide attention to the climate emergency. We thought that it wasn’t enough to just have an episode on pollution so we have produced a brand new episode on Climate Change (watch it now) and broadcast it in both English and Kiswahili to our audience of over 24 million kids in Africa.
The episode explains how greenhouse gas emissions by humans are leading to climate change, and explores difficult questions about why this is happening and how it affects kids in Africa. One of the most difficult elements of creating this episode was figuring out how to frame climate change for kids in Africa, who are among the least culpable for the problem but also among the worst affected– so while we did talk about actions that kids can take in their own lives to mitigate climate change, the episode also looked at how people in power need to drastically change their decisions and priorities to protect kids’ futures… and how kids can engage in those conversations with them.
The episode also highlights the utu theme of respect (vs. obedience) by giving children practical ways in which they can share their opinions and challenge harmful norms, while still being respectful of their elders (a very important value in most African communities). Throughout the episode, the Ubongo Kids go back to the core of what utu is – respecting your community, and realizing that the community does not only consist of humans but of plants and animals too. They learn how to be respectful to all species. The episode also challenges ideas of respect and leadership and what types of leaders deserve respect. Respect and leadership go hand in hand. To lead others, you first have to earn their respect. But more than that, great leadership creates a climate of respect, an environment that sets high standards and supports everyone in doing what is good for others and the community.
