The event took place early Saturday morning at Gigabyte’s headquarters located in New Taipei City. It was a very rainy day, but nonetheless, all the children showed up on time.
Altogether, 38 children from 15 schools attended the Academy.

The Academy was made possible thanks to the commitment of GIGA-BYTE TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD. The event was free of charge for all the attending children, aged 8-13 years. Special thanks go to Plant-for-the-Planet Programme Coordinator, Angela Chen, the Sustainable Development Office at Gigabyte, and all the schools for their participation

Not to be forgotten are the many helpers and supporters, without whom the implementation of the Academy, venue, technology, food, tree planting event, and much more would not have been possible.

After an official welcome by Dandy Yeh, the Chairman of Gigabyte, and government officials, the adults proceeded to attend the parallel sessions. For the 38 children who remained in the room, Ni Ni welcomed them and gave the presentation "Now We Children Save the World!” The presentation covered: sources of CO2, global warming, photosynthesis, the climate crisis, Plant-for-the-Planet, and global justice. These topics were presented in a way suitable for children of the same age. In the subsequent question and answer session, the children had the opportunity to eliminate any ambiguities they may still have had. All the children were fully engaged during the presentation.

After a short break with light refreshments, the children were divided into five small groups to learn about global distribution and justice in the World Game. The children distributed playing pieces, such as candies and balloons on the world maps laid out on the tables as symbols of the world’s population, wealth, and CO2 emissions respectively. The children didn’t need to be told twice to distribute the balloons and sweets among the playing pieces. Eventually, the CO2 emissions and wealth were distributed fairly – everyone has equal rights. Then, the children formed five public speaking groups, and prepared, and presented short passages from the opening presentation that they had seen at the start of the day. They gave each other tips on how to improve their presentations in the future. Afterwards, each co-moderator selected two children for the evening presentation.

The children then broke for a vegetarian lunch, and were able to relax a little, and to discuss the topics covered so far with each other. After lunch was over, the children went up to the rooftop garden for the tree planting session. The Division Director of Gigabyte’s Sustainable Development Office, Rolance Chu introduced the children to Gigabyte’s unique eco-roof, followed by the tree planting activities. Due to heavy rain, they took part in the symbolic planting of hawthorns and hill gooseberries in just over 30 minutes. The children received hands-on experience planting trees, and proudly took pictures with the trees they planted.

After a short break, it was back to the programme. While a small group prepared to give the final presentation for the attending parents and other guests, the rest of the children started the "World Café" module. The children worked on the following questions at four stations: "How do we ensure that the media reports about us?", "How do we motivate the adults?", "How do we motivate friends and classmates?", and "How do we organize a planting party?".

After everyone had the opportunity to write down their thoughts to each question, the school groups got to work on the solutions. The ideas and solutions are presented in a clear manner: "What we want to do at our school; who is responsible for which task, and by when do we want to achieve our goals". Together with a shortened version of the Academy presentation, the outcomes of the school group work were presented to the attending family, friends, and guests. The children delivered outstanding performances and were very proud of their achievements. It was also a big milestone for them to finally become Climate Justice Ambassadors.

After a long, eventful, and enjoyable day, all 38 participants received their certificates, which recognized them as a Climate Justice Ambassador. Children from each participating school took turns taking photos with Gigabyte representatives, holding up their certificates. An interesting day had come to an end. Apart from the experience and newly found knowledge, all new Ambassadors took with them a copy of Tree by Tree as well as the Plant-for-the-Planet t-shirt they collected at the start of the day. Parents, friends, organizers, and guests were very impressed by the performances of the children.

The team at Plant-for-the-Planet would like to thank all those involved for this wonderful Academy Day. More academies, supported by GIGA-BYTE TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD. are planned for 2018. Upcoming Academies will be announced on the Plant-for-the-Planet website.

For more pictures click here.