A group of students, on Thursday, kicked off the Students Strike for Climate as part of the Global Climate Stike in Maldives with a protest at the entrance of Velanaage, a major government office complex in the capital city of Male'.
The students, participating with parental consent, gathered at 0745 hours with emotive signboards calling for immediate action to curb the climate crisis.
Their demands to the government include halting land reclamation and plastic importation as well as the inclusion of more cohesive coverage of climate change in the school syllabus. The protest was arranged by Save Maldives, a local environmental movement.
"Bahaa amalaa dhimaakurey".@presidencymv@MoEnvmv@MoNPImv@mvpeoplesmajlis#ClimateStrikeMV#SaveMaldives 💙 pic.twitter.com/RmGqHvxJPT
— SaveMaldives (@SaveMaldivesMV) September 26, 2019
In addition to the capital, climate strikes are being staged in Kulhudhuffushi, Haa Dhaalu Atoll and Addu City with another protest scheduled for the afternoon in Fuvahmulah City.
Various local organizations are participating in the strike, including women empowerment group Uthema Maldives and anti-corruption watchdog Transparency Maldives.
Maldives Open Source Society (MOSS) also hosted a strike in the capital on Wednesday, while another major protest will take place in the reclaimed suburb of Hulhumale' planned by AYHA, a private consultancy firm.
The global strike was inspired by 16-year-old Swedish national Greta Thunberg's lone protest outside the Swedish Parliament building in 2018 citing political inaction against climate change. Her actions sparked a worldwide movement dubbed 'School Strike for Climate', which has since become one of the leading youth-led climate change organizations in the world.
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