Inviting Young People to take the Plastic Tide Turners Digital Challenge
17 October 2020: The World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM), Africa Region with support from UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office and in partnership with Cartedo are are pleased to announce the launch of the Plastic Tide Turners Digital Challenge to help young people to understand the impact that humans have in the world when it comes to plastic use and consumption and how they can promote a clean, healthy planet that will contribute to a more sustainable world.
The one-month online challenge will run from 17 October to 15 November 2020 on the Cartedo App platform targeting to reach at least 40,000 young people across Africa and beyond aged 14 years and above. This is part of the region’s offerings under the Scouting at Home programme during these extraordinary times brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The challenge gives young people an opportunity to explore how we might address the challenges of plastic pollution on land and sea, with a focus on finding sustainable alternatives to plastic while inspiring behaviour change in the production and consumption of plastic among young people and their communities.
We are looking for ideas to solve real challenges faced by real people. Through this challenge young people have the opportunity to develop future-ready employability skills like design thinking while contributing to the global efforts to beat plastic pollution.
As participants progress through this challenge, they will use a human-centered design approach to discover different ways in which plastic waste and plastic pollution is affecting marine, land and human life, define these challenges from a human-centered perspective, and develop innovative solutions to the challenges.
Every participant who finishes this challenge will receive a certificate of participation from the YOMA platform (www.yoma.africa) acknowledging their positive contribution in the fight against plastic pollution. Additionally, they will also receive a verifiable digital credential and 500 zlto points (www.zlto.co) that will be redeemable for various digital opportunity rewards on Africa’s digital ecosystem that is backed by UNICEF.
The participants will also be able to join the Earth tribe community (facebook.com/groups/theearthtribe) for an opportunity to explore a series of other exciting environmental challenges at earthtribe.scout.org and to earn recognition badges. Scouts with the top five solutions will receive support to crowdfund for the implementation of their ideas through the Scout Donation Platform (donate.scout.org).
To take the challenge, participants will need to click on this link https://u.cartedo.com/tide-turners to sign up before proceeding with the challenge. We have prepared a demo video available here youtube.com/watch?v=J9d3k_JTfL0 that walks you through the challenge. The challenge is accessible via web and android and iOS mobile.
We believe by taking up the Plastic Tide Turners Challenge, young people will develop their knowledge, skills, and attitudes essential for supporting the Sustainable Development Goals and build their competencies to adopt responsible behaviour towards the environment for a clean, healthy and sustainable planet.
The Plastic Tide Turners Challenge is a programme designed by the UN Environment with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom and in partnership with Junior Achievement, the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts and the World Organization of the Scout Movement.
In case you have any questions, encounter any problems or wish to report an issue during the duration of the challenge, please reach out to Nelson Opany - Manager, Communications and Partnerships on nopany@scout.org.