By Jenn Azevedo, Oxfam Summer Volunteer
On Saturday 19 March, the Oxfam team attended the Kew Community Festival. We spent a beautiful sunny day engaging the local community in discussions around climate change. We asked them to sign petitions and postcards to the Climate Change Minister, Greg Combet, demanding the Australian Government tackle climate change by, committing to a pollution reduction target of 40% by 2020, investing in clean energy, assisting poor countries in accessing low-carbon technologies, and making a fair financial contribution to help poor countries adapt to climate change.
The Kew Community Festival was centered on family, children and fun. We set up the Oxfam tent in Alexandra Gardens amidst all the action. It was a unique opportunity to talk to parents and children from the local community and get their take on climate change. We were lucky to have several children and parents take a break from the festival to spend some time talking to us about climate change. While also enjoying the Fair Trade chocolate and green cordial we were handing out.
It was exciting to find that most of the children we spoke to are learning about the adverse affects of climate change in school and that many of their parents are avid Oxfam supporters. Throughout the day we received a very positive response and got a lot of signatures. We also took some great pictures of kids showing that they care about climate change. The day was definitely a success and we had a great time!
