An Interview with Docubox: On How Storytelling Leads to Tangible Change

In June 2018, Docubox Project Manager Emily Wanja, and farmer, community leader, and climate change activist Kisilu Musya, featured in the film Thank You For The Rain, talked to us about inspiring farming communities through filmmaking.

Click here for more information about this CJRF grant.

CJRF: What’s your mission?

Emily Wanja: To create compelling stories, observational documentaries, that are character driven that can cause an impact, and in effect, cause change in societies, especially in East Africa.

CJRF: What does the CJRF funding enable you to do?

Emily Wanja: To empower communities to be more resilient and to engage in activities that will help them in climate change adaptation. These range from tangibles such as dams or irrigation projects, but most importantly, knowledge. The reason that knowledge is so key is because long after we’ve come and gone, we know that they can use [knowledge] to be completely self-sustaining and empower themselves. To us, the climate might change tomorrow, and climate change might get worse with time, but if they know how to adapt to it and to navigate through other economic projects, then they are empowered.  

Kisilu Musya: I feel very comfortable sharing the film with people as a way of sharing my experience. It is a way of making sure every community gets to understand about the climate challenges that communities are facing. It is about making sure information is passed from one corner to another corner of the world.

 CJRF: What is unique about your project?

Emily Wanja: The film cuts across farmers, organizations, governments, and corporations. Through Kisilu, who stars in the film, he has been able to represent grassroots communities all the way to COP21 and more recently in Bonn. The fact that you use a film, which is not conventional for a lot of organizations, that’s already unique. For us as filmmakers, we have also had to realize the film is even more powerful if you work in partnerships with other organizations in the field.

CJRF: What does success look like for this project?

Emily Wanja: If we are able to spread awareness to urban audiences, if we are able to create conversations that are going lead to actual results and tangibles in the government and with other stakeholders and policy makers, for us that is success. This is informed and led by some of the needs that the community members themselves have tabled. We learned early on that you can’t walk in there and assume what people want. They have to tell you and they have to want it themselves. Through the community, if we are able to achieve things such as knowledge and empower them to demand some of these things, that is success. 

Kisilu Musya: One thing that I am looking forward to seeing is change of mindset of both the community and government at all levels. The community must understand the precautions needed in their daily practices. On the side of government, both county and national government should understand and take responsibility for supporting the community.

CJRF: What is your organization really excited about right now?

Emily Wanja: The first projects that we granted are just about to hit the festivals and be released. But more than that, with this film [Thank You For The Rain], we see how you can use a film in collaboration with other organizations or other partners to create and achieve a real impact. It’s not just any other documentary; this is part of us changing lives, changing behaviors, and starting certain discussions and conversations that we haven’t had before on this side of the world.

 CJRF: When you work in your community and talk to people about climate change, how do you get them to listen to what you’re trying to say?

Kisilu Musya: Communicating in my home area is very easy. It is all about the basic needs and relating these needs to climate change, so they pay attention and understand the issues and what they need to do to secure their rights. I normally base my argument on pointing at climate change as a challenge to human rights.

 CJRF: What does climate justice mean to your organization?

Emily Wanja: We want to empower the communities to do this for themselves. It’s a right, not a favor, that the government is doing them. Climate change is just as important as health or as when the government comes in and builds them a school. At the end of this project we want to say this community is now making demands of their county leadership and they are saying they want leaders to say what they are going to do about climate change. Different people suffer from different problems. For Kisilu, climate change is a real problem and there is no reason why it shouldn’t be on the agenda of the county and their leadership. 

CJRF: What do you love about the location where you’ll do this work?

Emily Wanja: I love the people. The people inspire me, especially the women. They have a genuine quest for solutions and information that is just so honest. 

Interviews have been edited for clarity and length. All pictures courtesy of Docubox.

An Interview with Il’laramatak Community Concerns: On Addressing Human Rights

In June 2018, Il’laramatak Community Concerns Founder and Executive Director Agnes Leina and Program Manager Isaac Tobiko spoke with us about their aims to help women and girls in Kajiado County, Kenya be more resilient to climate change.

Click here for more information about the Il’laramatak Community Concerns project grant.

CJRF: What’s your mission?

Agnes Leina: To respond to human rights concerns for pastoralist communities, especially women and girls. 

CJRF: What does the CJRF funding enable you to do?

Agnes Leina: This project is going to build the capacity of climate change stakeholders in Kajiado, integrate the issues of climate change into County Integrated Development Plans, and do community dialogue forums so that the community is aware of climate change and what it has done to them. We have done this in the past, and through community dialogues the issues come from them and they own the activities. 

CJRF: What is unique about your project?

Agnes Leina: There is one county that has a policy on climate change in the whole country, which tells you we are behind as a country on issues of climate change. We think we will be the second county to have a policy on climate change. That’s very unique. Also, the fact that we would like women to participate. Usually women are the ones who are affected most by climate change, yet they are the ones who contributed nothing to it and they are not there in the decision making.

CJRF: What does success look like for this project?

Agnes Leina: Community dialogue is very important to us, especially for women. At the end of the project, women and men in the whole county will have climate smart activities: farms or small gardens that are actually climate sensitive. Another success is a whole policy that is gender sensitive and will guide the whole county on climate change activities. The county will actually budget for activities that are climate smart.

CJRF: What is your organization really excited about right now?

Agnes Leina: In the last two days, we have placed a policy on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) to the county, which will be discussed at the next county assembly. We are very excited that [the policy] will be passed. Because that [policy] will be passed, we are excited and looking forward to policy on climate change being passed.

CJRF: What does climate justice mean to your organization?

Agnes Leina: We have lots of extractive industries in Kenya. Climate justice means ‘what is the compensation that people are given to acquire the land in which the projects were done.’ To me, that is a rights-based approach toward climate change. In most cases, there is no compensation, no access to justice, no environmental impact assessment done. All that is a violation of the human rights of the people we are working with.

Isaac Tobiko: This project really gives the people voice so they can articulate the things that are affecting them. They can be heard at the county and the national level so that injustices that are happening can be addressed.

CJRF: What do you love about the location where you’ll do this work?

Isaac Tobiko: If you look at the communities that we will be working in, they have been at the forefront (especially the women and girls) facing climate change challenges. Our communities listen to us because they believe that what we tell them is going to have an impact on their lives. On this journey, we are going to work with them so that we have smart initiatives to stop the effects of climate change.

Agnes Leina: We have the political good will from the county. Our governor is very supportive and aware of climate change. We will be the second county that will have a climate policy in place. It is where we have worked, where we are known, where we have [succeeded] in the past, and where we have had good reception because it is where we come from.

Interviews have been edited for clarity and length. Photos provided by ICC.

Building Social Justice in East Africa Through Climate Action

The Climate Justice Resilience Fund reached an important milestone in its development in June, with decisions to support seven new grants in Kenya and Tanzania.  In only its second year of operations, the Fund now has active grants in all three of its focal regions: the Bay of Bengal, East Africa, and the Arctic.

The newly approved East Africa grants foster climate justice through resilient land management, sustainable livelihood innovations, and policy advocacy.  Heather McGray, Director of the Fund, said, “These are grants that give voice and power to women, youth, and indigenous people in some of the places hit first by climate change impacts.” For example, with CJRF funding, Christian Aid Kenya will work with pastoralist women and young people in Northern Kenya to strengthen their participation in county climate planning, budgeting and governance. Another new grantee, IMPACT, will use CJRF funding to build a vibrant pastoralist movement to secure and promote community land rights and promote climate-resilient land management.

To launch our inaugural round of East Africa grants, CJRF hosted a workshop for new grantees on June 22 in Nairobi, Kenya. Workshop participants spent the day getting to know CJRF staff, the projects in the portfolio, and making connections and linkages between their respective work. Successful partnerships emerged as a strong area of interest among the workshop participants. Emily Wanja of new grantee Docubox highlighted the power of linkages: “For us as filmmakers, we…realize the film [Thank You For The Rain] is even more powerful if you work in partnerships with other organizations that are already in the field. What we can do is partner and bring our different strengths together in achieving the same goal, which is empowering communities to adapt and become climate smart.”

From Left to Right Bottom Row: Kisilu Musya (Thank You For The Rain), Agnes Leina (Il’laramatak Community Concerns), John Tingoi (IMPACT), Violet Shivutse (Shibuye Community Health Workers)

From Left to Right Top Row: Hilary Heath (CJRF), Nicholas Abuya (Christian Aid Kenya), Heather McGray (CJRF), Yussuf Bashir (Haki Na Sheria), Jane Meriwas (Samburu Women Trust), Gino Cocchiaro (Natural Justice), Elizabeth Silakan (IMPACT), Dr. John Kitui (Christian Aid Kenya), Emily Wanja (Docubox), Rita Kahurananga (Oak Foundation)

Beginning in August, additional details for each grant can be found on the Current Grants page of the CJRF website. The website also will feature interviews with workshop attendees in the upcoming months. Look for these features on our News page.

Grant Opportunity for Climate Change Adaptation/Resilience Communications in Alaska

Background
The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world -- an astounding 5℃ in the past 100 years. This extreme warming pattern has dangerous consequences for many people in Alaska, including risky travel across melting ice and tundra, and severe coastal erosion that is forcing whole communities to relocate. Indigenous populations are especially vulnerable, since their culture, identity, language, traditional foods, and ways of life all rely heavily on Alaska’s land and waters. As warming proceeds, indigenous communities also must contend with growing in-migration and the expansion of the cash economy that comes from increased industrial and commercial activity. The Climate Justice Resilience Fund (CJRF) seeks to help indigenous communities strengthen their climate resilience by building leadership and decision-making capacity; maintaining, updating and augmenting traditional knowledge; and establishing political advocacy processes. We believe that – in Alaska and elsewhere – the best climate solutions will emerge “bottom-up” from communities, and that respect for human rights should underpin all resilience-building efforts.

As part of CJRF’s grantmaking on climate resilience in Alaska, we have identified communications capacity building as a priority for investment. Consistent and effective communications are a key component to any successful leadership, advocacy, or knowledge-sharing effort, but for climate change advocates, communicating effectively often presents challenges. Many audiences see climate change often as an abstract and distant problem for the future, without day-to-day implications for their lives. The issue also carries both scientific and political “baggage” that complicates messaging and can be a turn-off for some audiences. Moreover, climate solutions – especially adaptation solutions – can be complex and counter-intuitive for those not familiar with how climate change can impact food, water, livelihoods, and infrastructure.

Opportunity
Alaskan advocates have important opportunities – and urgent needs – around climate communications, since the issue is not abstract or distant in the state. With this call for letters of inquiry, CJRF seeks innovative ideas for building climate change communications capacity within Alaska’s non-profit sector. We aim to empower communities by strengthening the ability of non-profit organizations to effectively and strategically communicate about climate change adaptation to a diversity of audiences. We believe that strong climate change communications – about both problems and solution sets – is an essential ingredient for effective adaptation action at community, state, and national levels. Focus will be onAlaska Native organizations and those working on climate adaptation/resilience activities with indigenous communities. Potential outcomes of this call could include (but are not limited to):

• New organizational strengths in communications, with specific attention to strategy and messaging around climate resilience and adaptation

• A cohort of young indigenous leaders with strong communications skills and clear narratives around social justice approaches to adaptation and resilience

• New, more effective climate resilience communications strategies, narratives, or tactics shared among advocacy networks and alliances

• Improved communications systems for knowledge exchange among communities actively grappling with the impacts of climate change

Applicants may propose activities up to three years in length, with budgets between $100,000 and $400,000. Letters are welcome from individual organizations; CJRF is also interested in supporting collaborative efforts among multiple organizations.

Process
Interested groups should submit a letter of inquiry (LOI) to applications@cjrfund.org by 11:59 pm Alaska time on Thursday April 26. Letters may not exceed three pages. They should summarize the proposed project's objectives, intended outcomes, budget, partners, and any co-funding. Successful applicants will be invited to make a full proposal for a June deadline. This call for communications LOIs is separate from CJRF’s main April 13 call for Arctic LOIs. Submission of a letter to one call for proposals will not disqualify an organization from submitting for the other call.

Please see information about the CJRF and its strategy at www.cjrfund.org. Please note that CJRF aims to fill a funding niche on the adaptation side of climate justice, so we do not support work focused on greenhouse gas emissions reduction.

New Climate Justice grants to support Alaska native communities facing sea level rise

Two new grants to support Alaska Native communities in developing strategies to adapt to climate change were announced today by the Alaska Institute for Justice (AIJ), the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC), and the Climate Justice Resilience Fund (CJRF). AIJ received a $752,000 grant from CJRF and a $55,000 grant from UUSC to work with 15 communities along the Alaska coast. The funds will support AIJ’s efforts to develop community-based adaptive strategies that protect the health and well-being of Alaska Native communities experiencing the impacts of climate-induced environmental change. This funding announcement coincides in timing with the last meeting of the Arctic Council during the US Chairmanship, scheduled to occur in Fairbanks, Alaska on May 11.  During the two-year U.S. chairmanship of the Arctic Council, the council prioritized climate change, its impacts on the environment and projects to help Arctic residents respond and adapt.   The funding awarded by CJRF and UUSC will continue this important work.

As the Arctic disproportionately bears the consequences of a rapidly changing climate, Alaska Native communities are facing an urgent need to relocate due to erosion and sea level rise.  CJRF Director, Heather McGray, sees the social justice opportunity to “help indigenous people build a movement, amplify their voices, and build resilience for their communities.” Launched in September 2016 by the Oak Foundation, the CJRF supports people on the “front lines” of climate change to assert their rights and develop community-led climate solutions.  The grant to AIJ represents the CJRF’s first-ever grant in the Arctic region, and its first multi-year grant.  The CJRF is a project of the New Venture Fund, a 501(c)(3) public charity. The New Venture Fund (NVF) hosts and incubates a wide range of conservation, education, global health, and other charitable projects. 

UUSC recognizes the grave danger that climate change poses for the world’s most vulnerable populations. Their funding promotes environmental justice and protects human rights, with a specific focus on protecting the rights of people that are forcibly displaced by climate change in the South Pacific and in Alaska. Salote Soqo, UUSC’s Senior Program Leader for Environmental Justice & Climate Action emphasizes the urgency of this crisis, “These are indigenous communities and what they are experiencing is directly impinging on their basic human rights and their values as indigenous people. Governments must urgently respond to this crisis to protect the rights and dignities of their communities.” UUSC provides grants to grassroots partner organizations to strategically organize and build the capacities of affected communities to advocate for rights-based solutions and protection. In addition to providing flexible financial support, UUSC contributes various forms of innovative collaboration and technical assistance to our partner organizations.

Robin Bronen, senior research scientist at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and co-founder and executive director of AIJ, stated, “This funding will have a monumental impact on our efforts to help Alaska Native communities as we face one of the biggest humanitarian challenges of the 21stst century.”  With Arctic communities at the forefront of global environmental change, AIJ’s efforts will be critical to the development of long term adaptation strategies for affected communities. “Our groundbreaking research to work with Alaska Native communities and design and implement a community-led relocation process that protects their livelihoods and health may provide a template for other communities faced with this extraordinarily difficult decision.” 

For more information, please contact:  Robin Bronen – 907-441-5917 or Salote Soqo – 617-301-4364

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