Climate change is killing our people

As world leaders met for high-level talks that could be the start of a new global treaty on climate change, a Ugandan woman has made a direct plea to them to cut carbon emissions. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday’s one-day climate change summit in New York has given fresh impetus to efforts to tackle global warming. Speaking to the world press yesterday, he said the summit had moved the in favour of reaching a deal at December's crucial climate meeting in Copenhagen. But as the UN leaders were discussing the finer points of policy, Constance Okollet speaking to the Guardian newspaper had a passionate message to those in power. “World leaders should know,” she said, “climate change is destroying my village in Uganda - flooding our homes and ruining our crops.”

A farmer from the Tororo district in eastern Uganda and a mother of seven, Constance told the newspaper: “There are no seasons any more in eastern Uganda. Before, we had two harvests every year, but now there’s no pattern. “Floods like we've never seen swept up everything. This forced us to move to higher ground. By the time we came back home, all the houses had collapsed and food was washed away.” Because the ground was still flooded, when the villagers went back to their homes, there were a lot of mosquitoes and five of Constance’s family caught malaria. Because there was no clean water to drink, some people got cholera and diarrhoea. “Many of the people in my village died. Children didn't go to school since they were too weakened by disease and their parents had no money for school fees.” This year, the same village suffered a drought. The crops dried up and the wells ran dry. “We didn't understand why this had happened,” she said, “We wondered what we had done to make God so angry. But we now know its climate change. It's very hard for us to grow food, and some mornings, I go to my field only to find that someone has stolen the potatoes. Although it makes me angry, I know that if my neighbours didn't steal the potatoes, they wouldn't have anything to eat.”

About 100 leaders attended the talks, ahead of the Copenhagen summit that is due to approve a new treaty on climate change. At the close of the meeting, Mr Ban Ki -Moon praised world leaders for their desire to tackle climate change. "While the summit is not the guarantee that we will get the global agreement,” he said. “We are certainly one step closer to that global goal today." Constance said: “I wanted to make world leaders understand that we are getting poorer and poorer because of climate change, and we are dying. I ask them to help my community fight the climate change that destroys our houses, increases diseases and stops our children from attending schools. That’s all I am asking.”

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children