Children's views at Camp Sizanani Life Skills on mitigating environmental risks and poverty for a sustainable future

Abstract

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development strives towards eradicating poverty in all its forms; it envisions a world where everyone has access to safe drinking water, sanitation, improved hygiene, and food security, where children are protected and invested in (Lombard, 2015:486). In 1989, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) declared children’s participation in decision making processes as a cornerstone of their human rights and recognised that their views should be incorporated in all UNCRC processes (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), 1989; UNICEF, 2018:29).

The goal of the study was to explore and describe children’s views at Camp Sizanani Life Skills in mitigating environmental risks and poverty for a sustainable future. The study used a qualitative approach. The applied study used a case-study research design to understand how children can mitigate environmental risks and poverty in their community. The purposive sampling method was used to select five children from Camp Sizanani Life-skills youth clubs for the study. Data was collected by means of photovoice and one-on-one interviews. The thematic data analysis method was used to analyse the data of the study, while data quality was verified through ensuring credibility, transferability and conformability. Since the study involved children, the Ethical Research Involving Children (ERIC) ethics were applied.

The findings indicate that illegal dumping, water pollution and air pollution in communities are the greatest cause of concern and a threat to humans and the environment. The findings further show that poverty is manifested through inadequate housing infrastructure, little or no access to clean water, no access to decent toilets and poor road infrastructure. The study also found that children have great ideas, and they think they can contribute towards resolving serious societal issues such as environmental risks and poverty in their communities, but they are restricted in doing so.

The study concludes that children are aware of the environmental risks in their communities and how it affects people and the environment. Also, children see and experience poverty daily. Children are also aware of the inter-connectivity between environmental risks and poverty and the harm it causes to humans and the environment. Furthermore, the study concludes that although children have good ideas, and the agency to share them, they are not given the platform and opportunity to participate in matters that concern them.

The study recommends that children should take initiative to mobilise community action. The study also recommends that opportunities should be created for child participation in the community and there should be a coordinated action plan for stakeholders in the community to have different roles to play in the community to mitigate environmental risks and poverty and not to rely only on government.