The 12-year-old Colombian activist participated in a conference at Fundesplai.
The 12-year-old Colombian activist participated in a conference co-organized by Fundesplai and Plant for the Planet.
- Retrieve the video of the conference in this link.
Francisco Javier Vera Manzanares is a boy who, at the age of 12, has already become a world leader in the fight against climate change. On Wednesday, June 29, he offered a conference at the headquarters of Fundesplai (El Prat de Llobregat) entitled The future is here, co-organized by Fundesplai and Plant for the Planet, an entity that fights against climate change. The young activist also participated in a meeting of young people for climate. His speech began by highlighting the importance of thinking about the Earth as a whole: “The planet has no borders and everything we do for it has consequences“.
Vera Manzanares founded with 9 years the motion Guardianes por la vida, a group that brings together 500 children and young people that promote the Environmental awarenessin his native country. Currently, Guardians for Life has become the Colombian chapter of Fridays for Future, the initiative led by Greta Thunberg against global warming. The young activist recalled that very often children are removed from the public debate on climate change, which also affects them as citizens of the present (not the future): “Children already have a voice, we don’t need to be given: we need to be heard.”
His words conveyed positivism in an auditorium where there were many children and young people: Children can create organizations to combat climate change and become activists. We can all greatly influence society through our actions».
In his speech he also explained that he is a boy who combines his studies —he wants to be a physicist, historian or geographer—, hobbies —he is a fan of AuronPlay— and sports activity with his activism. At the end of the event, peace activist Nadia Ghulam offered her as a gift her book Dreaming of Peace.
Once the intervention was over, she participated in a workshop with other girls and boys organized by Plant for The Planet.
United Nations advisor and goodwill ambassador to the European Union
His activism has also led him to be appointed child advisor to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and European Union Goodwill Ambassador to Colombia and was invited to his country’s parliament in 2019, where he did a Discourse against fracking, animal abuse and the use of plastics.
Francisco Javier Vera Manzanares is also a strong supporter of the Escazú Agreement, the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Access to Justice in Environmental Affairs in Latin America and the Caribbean. Among other things, this agreement seeks to protect environmental defenders in this region of the world.
In addition, it focuses much of its efforts on dissemination. He has written the book Ask Francisco: ¿Qué es el cambio climático?, and his profiles on social networks have tens of thousands of followers through which he transmits his messages focused on the dissemination on climate change or Concept of “eco-hope” versus “eco-anxiety“, as well as the role that children and young people should play in environmental discourses.
A conference that is part of Fundesplai’s work for sustainability
The conference by Vera Manzanares is part of the work for environmental education developed by Fundesplai and which is one of its central axes of action. Specifically, the event belongs to the cycle of conferences of the European project EAT:LIFE, focused on healthy and sustainable eating.
At the local level, the organization is developing the educational proposal “Eating changes the world”, also focused on sustainable and healthy food, which reaches more than 115,000 children and young people in schools, youth centers and othereducational spaces.
In this sense, emphasis should also be placed on the 1,500 m2 exhibition «EAT, ACT, IMPACT» that Fundesplai inaugurated in November 2021 at its headquarters in El Prat de Llobregat and which proposes a Reflection on sustainable and healthy foodFrom 5 axes: food waste, overpackaging of plastics, organic and proximity agriculture, increase in vegetable protein and decrease in ultra-processed foods.
The EAT:LIFE projecthas received funding from the European Union’s LIFE programme. The contents of this conference are the sole responsibility of Fundesplai and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union.