In Antigua, island youth build ‘wall of commitment’ to turn tide against climate crisis

Photo: UN News/ Matthew Wells. Retrieved from news.un.org

The SIDS Global Children and Youth Action Summit taking place this weekend on the University of the West Indies campus of the beautiful island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, which is hosting SIDS4, bonded together 80 or so young people from all three official SIDS regions – the Caribbean, Pacific and AIS (Indian Ocean and South China Sea) over 3 days of brainstorming.

They noisily and excitedly hunkered down in a large and airy university hall on Saturday to write down their own personal commitments to action.

One of the cardboard “bricks” even featured an empty plastic bottle – the scourge of many of their island homelands – taped inside with a rallying cry for “plastic-free islands, sustainable islands.”

The powerful event was the brainchild of Ashley Lashley, a lifelong activist who, after being crowned Miss World Barbados in 2018, set up the Ashley Lashley Foundation to build awareness of major social, environmental and health issues, especially through the prism of small island States like her own.