Speeches Shim
The Republic of Kiribati is a tiny Pacific Island nation located along the equator. Most of the country’s 33 islands stand just a few meters above the sea, leaving its population of 105,000 people vulnerable to rising sea levels and severe weather.
Mafuatu Taulelei is the chief of Vaipu’a, a village on the southwest coast of Samoa's Savai’i island. Like many villages in Samoa, the people of Vaipu’a have relied on town markets to feed their families; but rising sea levels, cyclones and extreme rainfalls are harming agriculture and fishing, and resulting in food shortages.
Angeline Kobuko, a young woman from the Bana district of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, is the youth president of her community. A strong leader, she represents the voice of the youth at district meetings on pressing issues, such as violence prevention.
A natural disaster is 30 times more likely to occur in the Pacific Islands than in the United States. Floods, droughts, tropical cyclones and other extreme weather events have forced people to cope with the devastating effects of a changing climate. Many of the region’s villages have not developed formal disaster response training, leaving families unprepared to survive catastrophic events.
Comment
Make a general inquiry or suggest an improvement.