The Idea:

A discussion in Reefkeepers sparked the idea. After watching Greta Thunberg’s TED Talk, we wanted to organize a school strike to stand in solidarity with the movement and demonstrate OSC’s concern about the climate crisis. The next week, Talia and I spoke about our idea to Disara and Rashmi because I learned that they started to plan a climate strike last year but were unable to because of the bombings. That same day Disara and I sent an email to the service leaders and SGA Exco, explaining our preliminary ideas and setting up a meeting for the following week to begin planning.

The Plan:

Organizing the event was very time-consuming. Talia, Emily, Disara, Rashmi, Joshua Wright, Joshua Jackson, Luca, and I met up during break-times and lunchtimes to plan what we were going to do and why we were doing it. We changed our plan many times. Since we were not able to walk out of school and go to a government building (what Greta Thunberg recommends) because of safety and logistical issues, we were first just going to focus on educating our peers on the issue and try to get as many people as possible to be involved. However, in the end, we decided to write letters during the event to send to the government in order to stress how important this cause is to us and that they must take action to mitigate Sri Lanka’s contribution to the climate crisis. After school on the Wednesday before the event, I stayed after school in the Makerspace with Luca, Josh Jackson, Josh Wright, and Emily to create posters related to the cause. Also, in order to spread awareness for the event, I created a digital poster using Canva.

The poster I created for the Climate Strike.

The Day of the Strike:

We all met at 7:00am at the back entrance of the school to spread the word and remind people that the strike was happening and when to come to the auditorium. We then skipped homeroom to walk around the school to different homerooms with our posters that we created to make sure everyone knew that the strike was happening in order to get a majority of our student body to participate.

Talia, Muneera, and I in the morning with posters we created to raise awareness about the strike. (Photo was taken by Emily Whight)

At 12:00pm we walked out of class to the auditorium. The assembly started with a short speech by a couple of the DP2 service leaders who I emailed at the beginning. We then showed a video of Greta Thunberg speaking in front of the UN, followed by an activity organized by Joshua Jackson. We handed out pieces of paper on which each student wrote their thoughts on what should be done to tackle climate change in Sri Lanka. In order to conclude the assembly, Disara, Luca, Josh, and Rashmi informed the audience about a pledge and highlighted some of the initiatives it covered.