Connect4Climate is putting out a call for African and African Diaspora bloggers. Next week is AVCC week. This is the first of what we hope can be an annual event. We are looking to engage Africa’s online intellectual capacity to chime in on the global climate change conversation. We may all enjoy blogging about different issues regarding the continent, from politics to sports, to entertainment. But the one thing that we all need to pay attention to is climate change.
Nothing poses more of a threat to the sustainable survival of our continent than this issue of climate change. Africa is and will be the continent most affected by climate change. We read about droughts, land slides, floods, and food shortages. The changing seasons are wreaking havoc on our traditional ways of survival. It is time we chimed in on this issue. It doesn’t matter if you believe in climate change or not, it is time to say it publicly and convincingly. Your voice counts. Every voice counts. If you don’t have a blog, feel free to send us your thoughts. We’ll post them here and submit your entries to the Connect4Climate team.
Make your voice heard, we know you have one. The worst thing you can do is refuse to engage in this conversation. Check below for more information.
What is AVCC?
African Voices on Climate Change (AVCC) is a blog-a-thon organized by the Connect4Climate team to bring particular focus to African bloggers writing about climate change in their community. This will be a listening activity for C4C where we turn over the “microphone” to hear what the continent has to say on this complex issue. This “climate change blog-a-thon” will coincide with the on-going efforts to mobilize Africa’s youth to participate in the Connect4Climate campaign.
If you are an African of African Diaspora blogger, we want to hear from you. How is climate change affecting your community, your work, your lifestyle, your family. This is your chance to be heard and an opportunity to engage with the world through your personal stories on climate change. Climate change affects everyone, all the way from the rich businessman in the capital, down to the farmer in the village. This is an opportunity for Africa to unite through the shared experiences of climate change. Share your story with the world next week.
When
AVCC will kick off on October 24th and run through October 31st. We are announcing it this week so you have time to prepare, research, write, take photos or video to support their blog posts.
Topics to Cover
Bloggers are asked to write at least one blog post on any of the six main Connect4Climate categories of focus. You can certainly write about any issue related to climate change, but the six categories below relate to the major sectors where the effects of climate change are highly visible:
- Agriculture
- Energy
- Forests
- Gender
- Health
- Water
Some questions the bloggers might consider addressing on the above topics include but are not limited to:
- What changes have African bloggers/journos experienced in their climate and environment over time?
- What do African bloggers/journos know and understand about global climate change?
- What do African opinion leaders know and understand about climate change and what are their views on their country’s responses to climate change?
Spread the message
We encourage you to share your blog posts on as many social media networks as you can. The broader the conversation, the richer the results. Feel free to engage us on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Youtube.
Post Tags
Please tag your posts so that they are easily aggregated via Google or any news reader. The suggested post tags are:
- c4climate
- climate change
- cop17
- Durban
- Africa
If you have a Twitter account, please publish a link to your article using the following hashtags:
- #avcc
- #c4climate
You can also send us a tweet to @connect4climate. This will make it easier for your posts to be discovered and also help us “listen” for whenever new posts are published during that week.
If you are on Facebook, make sure to share your blog post on our page. While you are at it, give us a “like” and join the conversation. You will be enthusiastically welcomed.
Photo/Video Competition
While you are putting together your blogs, please submit a photo or video to the Contect4Climate competition if you are eligible. Check out our photo/video competition page for more information. You can also check our Facebook page to view current entries.
Climate Change resources
We will be publishing climate change related information in our resources section and our What is Climate Change page all this week in case you need to refer to it for your blog posts.a
