Following the success of the previous year’s camp, JCJ sponsored the Floating School’s Maritime Leadership Camp 2022 in South Sulawesi. 25 college students from seven coastal communities joined the five facilitators on a weekend filled with great environmental learning and discussions.
They managed to plant 200 mangroves, hold a plastic audit, an eco-bricks workshop, and an environmental movie night. The group reconvened in May 2023 with a turtle release that went very well. The Floating School continues to engage with and support the camp attendees.
JCJ provided support to our sister organisation ECO-V to set up and run another Metta Garden in one of the largest schools of Sri Lanka. Metta Gardens aim to remake the connection between nature and the younger generation who now mostly live within urban areas, as well as to improve the local biodiversity and provide a solution to the Sri Lankan food crisis.
ECO-V have refocused their efforts on Metta Gardens and nurseries during COVID and the economic situation in Sri Lanka, that have prevented them from running the usual Yathra projects.
The school that this Metta Garden has been built on is one of the most reputable school in Colombo. So the message of the Metta Gardens will spread to the large number of school attendees, parents, and local community members.
Trained green leaders through Sri Lankan Yathras are always in action!
Dhanushka on the left
This is Dhanushka who participated in many yathras conducted by ECO-V in Sri Lanka co-sponsored by JCJ. He now maintains his own plant nursery, which JCJ helped fund.
He plants them with his young team and also gives away plants to people who are requesting more for tree planting campaigns.
JCJ continues to support these youth in Sri Lanka.
Last Sunday, we finally had our 10-Year Anniversary Dinner, would you believe it, in person! Thank you to the team at the Last Jar for having us, the lively Irish music was a highlight.
Kanchana introduced the night with the origins of Journeys for Climate Justice (JCJ), it was amazing to hear about how it all began. Jim followed by explaining to us the journey of JCJ and the ethical choices that they had to make along the way. We finished the night with a trivia put together by Natalie.
In preparation for our next exciting internal event (the AGM), we’d love you to show your continued support by renewing your membership details.
Your donations helped us to fund the “Weaving Hopes For the Future” collaborative project, led by KAMY.
It provides a space for the Indigenous youth and women to make sense of their climate realities and explores ways to communicate the climate injustice they experience to the global community. The team had an exhibit during COP26, which you can read more about here on their website – Weaving Hopes for The Future | Orang Asli & Climate Justice.
The women of the project who work with Klima Action Malaysia also passed on powerful words during a speech at COP26 – “The fossil fuel industry is like an abusive ex….”.
We are excited to announce the completion of an entirely new project that JCJ sponsored during September in Indonesia!
This camp was run by The Floating School – an organisation that takes young professionals out to remote islands to provide more artistic, cultural & technological education classes on the weekend to young people. Exposing them to subjects they normally would not have access to.
JCJ got in touch, and partnered with them to run their second annual ‘Maritime Leadership Camp’. It’s a 3-day training program which aims to introduce maritime issues to youth from remote islands and increase their leadership skills in taking action on those issues.
As we’re sure you’re already aware, the COVID-19 restrictions are increasing in Victoria.
Rather than moving to a Zoom meeting, we would love to keep our dinner party as an in person event, because it has been so long since we have all seen each other.
For this reason, we’ve made the decision to postpone our 10-Year Milestone Dinner Party until further notice. The new approximate date is Saturday 9th of October.
Journeys for Climate Justice (JCJ) is going to be celebrating its 10-year anniversary. After a long hiatus during these COVID times, we are excited to be able to finally catch up in person! Come share some lovely memories and a delicious meal with us. The evening will also feature a game of trivia, a raffle, and party favours!
The venue, Lentil as Anything, is a popular vegetarian/vegan restaurant with an amazing ethos: ‘pay as you feel’. You can read more about them here.
Our aim is to reflect on JCJ’s journey, as well as thank our supporters and celebrate the contributions of everyone that has supported us thus far. We have been an alternative to carbon offset programs since the very beginning. From the first Yathra in 2011, we have been funding behaviour change programs across the Asia-Pacific.
Alongside our supporters, we will continue our journey towards climate justice for years to come!
For several years now JCJ has helped fund initiatives for the Tulele Peisa, the organisation helping relocate Carteret Islanders from their climate change threatened atolls to the larger island of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea.
The Carteret Islanders on their homeland of low lying atolls. (Tulele Peisa)
Our support in 2016, 2018 & 2019 was centred around funding the establishment of cocoa farms which allowed the islanders to make a living on their new land. They have purchased cocoa seedlings, powered their administration building & tractors, ran workshops around cocoa farming, financial literacy & climate change adaptation with JCJ funds. They also constructed raised garden beds on the atolls to prevent saltwater intrusion from ruining crops for the people still living there.
Top & Middle Left: Workshops at community centre, Right: Planting cocoa saplings, Bottom Left: Drying first crop of cocoa beans.
This last project was all but wiped out by immense king tides in February 2021, a devastating and visible consequence of climate change.
In June 2021, we funded a chartered boat to provide plants, seedlings, and food to the 2,700 people who still inhabit the island. Moved by the Islanders’ predicament, the JCJ committee used some of their personal money to fund the charter, with the remainder of the contribution coming out of JCJ’s project fund. Watch them preparing supplies here >>
We are excited to announce that we are now selling our beloved Recycled Sari Bags!
The committee decided to order some more from the two Sri Lankan women who make them for our partner organisation ECO-V. We saw how popular they were from our last order and decided to allow any Australians to purchase them, not just those who attend our events (as we had done previously). They are perfect for you, friends or family (they also make great gifts!).
There is nothing quite like them on the market. They are super lightweight & crunch down into a tiny pouch making them perfect to pop in your pocket.
Not to mention, they are wonderful for the planet! ECO-V has collected non-biodegradable Sari’s from around Sri Lanka to prevent them from polluting the environment.
It is a great way to support JCJ as well as the Sri Lankan women’s’ livelihoods that have been impacted by the pandemic.
We are also offering multiple local pickup options for Melbourne, Australia.
