The ministry's Deputy for Quality Improvement of Children, Women, and Youth Woro Srihastuti Sulistyaningrum highlighted that her side collaborated with a nonprofit organization in holding a seminar to raise awareness of the impacts of climate change on children.
She affirmed that the seminar was a real form of climate change mitigation and adaptation effort.
"That is why we encourage all parties down to the regional level to increase awareness in handling the impact of climate change on children and also building resilience of children," Sulistyaningrum remarked.
Children must be subjects in climate change mitigation and not merely objects, she stated at the "Multi-Sector National Seminar and The Climate Generation Kick-Off" event.
She explained that the government also encouraged children to participate in activities to build their resilience as well as that of their families and surroundings in order to adapt to the impacts of climate change.
"(This is) so that they can determine the forms of activities, such as campaigning, which are relevant to the conditions surrounding them. We provide the widest space for young people to actively participate in campaigning and be involved in the process, including in policy making," she affirmed.
She also expressed support for activities carried out by stakeholders to increase children's resilience against climate change, such as the Save The Children campaign in eight cities, to ensure the awareness could reach the grassroots communities.
Sulistyaningrum pointed out that climate crisis is also crisis of children's rights. She cited as an example the Health Ministry's data in 2021 that showed acute respiratory infection and pneumonia caused by air pollution affected over 20 percent of the toddlers in Indonesia.
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Translator: Prisca V, Kenzu
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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