Environment and Climate
Online workshops linking climate leaders with health leaders
Willson Telephone Mpina founded the East and Central Africa Climate and Health Alliance, which has run more than three online workshops bringing healthcare leaders and climate leaders in front of young people across East and Central Africa.
More than three online workshops so far. Each one connected leaders in healthcare with leaders in climate change, for young people from East and Central Africa and some from West Africa. They are the work of the East and Central Africa Climate and Health Alliance, ECACHA, founded by Willson Telephone Mpina, a student at the University of Dodoma.
ECACHA is an international alliance for young people who are climate activists and health advocates. Its main aim, he says, is to work where climate change meets the health and well-being of the community. The first session was for student leaders and other young leaders in their youth-led non-governmental organizations.
“Healing the Earth and Empowering Communities is beyond Prescription”
Willson Telephone Mpina
The case he makes is about primary healthcare. Africa contributes less than 4% of global climate change, he says, but its primary healthcare is poorly equipped against the effects of it, and that calls for immediate action to link the two. Global climate policies should not overlook healthcare. The 29th Conference of the Parties, he says, "alarmed that Climate change is not a myth in Healthcare but a public health crisis."
The alliance has struggled with how to fund its minor projects, he says. One of them is the Aqua Libre project, which aims to map mercury toxicity in drinking water for people living in Mwanza, Tanzania. It has been difficult even to start. With that data, he says, the alliance can insist on policies on mining practices along the Tanzania lake zone.