How We Invaded a Room Full of Ministers, VIPs and Officials to Demand a Green Future

"ACTivism is about being an active citizen. It is the bills I pay for living on this planet".

I dedicate this to the team and volunteers of Ghana Youth Environmental Movement (GYEM) who executed the 'Green Invasion'.

Within the last 12 months, we have been working tireless to build an environmental movement in Ghana to run and win campaigns for environmental justice. We have aspired to build a movement that would be well known for one thing- campaigns - and so we have spent so much time to learn about one thing- campaigns.

We know movement building requires a lot of funding to take shape and achieve maximum sustainability. However, we hate the idea that we need big money to do the big things. Without any external funding or regular access to any grants, we have relied heavily on our community - ourselves, family and friends. We have done with ease stuff that requires heavy funding and massive capacity and skills to do. Don’t ask me how we did it, I don’t know, we did them anyway. We have gradually grasped the mantra of using less to deliver more through innovation. We survive by way of creativity and innovation, even if it has to be crazy and freaky.

Working at the grassroots has been very challenging though we believe that the only thing that gives credibility to a movement is the grassroots. What it also means is that it takes a lot of time to be noticed and even involved in interactions and decision making that normally takes place at the top. And so, we have a group of activists doing the most amazing things at the grassroots who are unknown, our movement unheard of by a huge chuck of the grassroots and the top hierarchy as well.

When we heard that the Ministry of Environment, Science & Technology (MEST) was going to inaugurate the National Environmental Policy, we knew it was a life time opportunity to strike! We didn't need the opinion of Deepak Chopra to know this was our chance, our moment.  We wanted attention, the mouse was about to eat cheese in the couch. The authorities had to know that there is a strong budding voice of young people tired of the talk and fed up with the conferences, summits, and the teas and committees without action. Our voice had to be heard; our movement had to be known.

Through consensus building within our team, we agreed that we would invade the inauguration event on Wednesday 7th November, 2012 at Alisa Hotel. The Minister of Environment,  Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) were going to be there, as well as a host of VIPs from foreign missions and loads of experts, technocrats, businesses and civil society organizations. This was the moment for the rabbit to dance ballet in tutu with carrot!

Our campaign strategy was scary and ridiculous. We would wear masks with strong messages on placards calling for the implementation and enforcement of the policy and storm the room full of dignitaries just when the Minister was about to speak. We would find a little boy to wear a big Ghana Youth Environmental Movement (GYEM) shirt twice his size, stick a paper at his back to read ‘IMPLEMENT THE POLICY’. He would be released by one of us to distract the Minister as she mounts the pulpit to speak, under the pretence of giving her a gift of a t-shirt. Then just when everyone’s attention was on the little boy, the rest of us would strike with our masks and take them unawares.  We needed only 20 volunteers to do this.

We put a message online and people showed so much interest and within 24hrs, recruitment was complete. The team sent me to recruit the boy and a section of our community generously offered their cousin, Nana, 6years.  All was set for what could be a Hollywood box office featuring the activists.

On the D-day, our team and volunteers arrived at the hotel at 12noon, three (3) clear hours to the main event to finalize the campaign strategy.  Nana was no where to be found, caught in traffic with his sisters and when he finally appeared an hour before the program, I shook his hands, planted a kiss on his cheek and knew that he was the man to deliver the job.

The Minister finally arrived, everyone was seated, the MC blessed the microphone and we took our positions outside the room. A team member was already in the room texting us about the turn of events. With a couple of minutes to the Keynote Address by the Minister, Nana was denied entry into the room because the Event Coordinator  who was policing the gate indicated that he was too young and might “cry” to distract the event.  I wasn't amused; we were going to distract the event anyway, fair enough! We were turned away back to the team and in a split of a second we had to re-strategize. People were getting nervous; my facial pores were melting with anxious steam.

We did strategize and agreed to invade the room all together at once with Nana leading the onslaught. We dashed to the washrooms; the team was on fire. We received a last signal to commence the operation and with the speed of light, we pounced on the gates with our funny masks and ‘unfriendly’ messages. The Minister was stunned, some of the dignitaries ogled, others giggled, and the event was distracted and disrupted! The Canadian Commissioner at the high table was the first to take a shot, the media followed suit and a cross section of dignitaries couldn't resist the temptation.  Yes!! We stunned the whole room, we got their attention!

Throughout the speech the Minister delivered on the policy, constant references were made to the messages we were carrying and she kept on saying “our young people are here”. Of course we were there and it was about us now. Soon after her delivery, we went through the front of the high table, Nana finally delivered his t-shirt gift to the Minister, and the latter sang his praise of what an incredible boy he is. We cat walked our way out of the room, the cameras continued to flash and our ladies dangled their waist line to the admiration of all.

The after party commenced immediately in the wash room and soon at the foyer of the building, we hugged and hugged. After making our way out of the building, a colleague called that EPA had ordered 20 packs of food for us out of sheer admiration for our prowess and bravado. They sent a camera guy to take us shots; we smiled at the camera while our whole faces froze. We packed our lunch and savored each grain of the gracious meal with willing tongues. Yes, we did it! Yes, we got the government's attention!! This is just the beginning.

(Ghana Youth Environmental Movement, GYEM, will run a follow up campaign early next year on Price for Pollution in Ghana)

How a 7yr Old Boy Transformed the Thinking of more than 600 Children through Sharing

“Change is not just a word, it’s a destination and any person can drive that journey” – Gideon Commey

Online activism is the new cult; I hate to call it a fad because it will live on and on, enduring just a modicum of mutation to make our message stronger through innovations, either by design or baptism of glorious serendipity.

We now call it Clicktivism (Click Activism), meaning there is a market place within which change can be influenced and probably effected without necessarily being at the ground zero. In other words, you can be in your washroom and use a mobile phone device to sign a petition for the release of a deposed President of Maldives, or even donate to a cause of providing food for children in famine-stricken Somalia. Change is airborne; in the gaseous state.

We run about four (4) social action initiatives on Facebook, all of them through online organizing. Organizing people online to the ground for social action is synonymous to overseeing a rehab for an indulgent cat to go veggies. It is challenging, demanding and above all bubbled by uncertainties. You don’t know if people who have signed up for an event online will actually come on the ground or not.

Share-Your-Lunch is one of our social action projects on Facebook, a nutrition event for kids that takes place every 3 months. Our online group makes online lunch pledges and they deliver the pledge in physical cooked food at a community event by sharing the food with children and it’s really fun.

One major challenge we have had throughout the past months since SYL started last year has been coordination of volunteers who come to share and children who come to chow down. Our volunteers always lose control of the numbers of kids, and it’s not their fault. They only get to meet at the event grounds and get briefed by Coordinators for few minutes before lunch starts. And are they supposed to deliver? No! Am sorry, they are not extraterrestrials raised by Merlin in Olympus.

So when we had the Easter edition of SYL on Saturday 24th March in James Town and more than 600 children turned up, we knew there was trouble and yes, there were mayhem and chaos. When we got to the breaking point, where coping with the crowd control was visibly and practically impossible, a 7yr old boy saved us. Bingo! In an environment where people express a phenotype of aggression to claim resources to satisfy one’s needs in life, you can’t blame these kids, even at that early stage of life, it’s about the survival of the fittest.

The children would heckle each other to be served lunch and when they even had their portions; they would quickly finish the food off, rub the mouth clean of crumbs and heckle their way once more into their seats for more food. Weaker and very little kids are affected here and no amount of words from us would calm them. They are always on fire.

This time around, thunder struck! One of our volunteers chanced on Martin, 7, and as soon as he handed over a pack of food, he refused the offer and demanded, “Please I have eaten, so give the food to the friend sitting next to me”. What? Is this child an angel? 

Our volunteer led Saint Martin to the heart of the grounds and told his story to a Coordinator. Our team quickly arranged to honor this super kid in front of an overwhelming and aggressive ‘child soldiers’ numbering over 600 and ready to do battle on the limited packs of food left.

Martin’s coronation as a Share-Your-Lunch Ambassador was a solemn one.  Rushing ribbons of quietness flew and swept the grounds in an ocean’s way, feasting over its subdued boisterous nemesis. One could hear the voice of a pin-drop, as the MC presented an apple shaped wine bowl of goodies to the hero.

The moment of truth arrived after Martin had taken his seat and the MC asked the children how many of them have had lunch already. To our surprise, more than 400 kids raised their hands in truth and sincerity and were made to gather at the centre and rewarded with sweets. What a powerful impact Martin made! It is however interesting to know that as a team of so-called social entrepreneurs behind SYL, we have struggled like a cow in a china shop to communicate the message behind the initiative to even our Facebook members, and here was a kid showing us how to do it. Martin didn’t only teach us how to do it, he did it.

Later that evening, our volunteer who discovered Martin posted an update on the powerful story of this wonder kid, with a large swell of people showering praises in awe. I joined the stew of voices and commented, “I call Martin the 1st African Child”. He is hope for the future, the Ghanaian dream. He has taught us the best form of leadership – to lead by example.