Rehka Dhillon-Richardson Creates Girls Climate Change Summit

Denizen of the Week: Rehka Dhillon-Richardson

The University City resident has turned her passion for the surround into a local girls climate summit and 2 trips to the U.North.—all by the age of 17

Jan. 13, 2017

Rehka Dhillon-Richardson spent her youngest years in a small town virtually Vancouver, where a few steps to the correct was the beach; there she explored tidepool eels, fish and coral. To the left, was a "mountain" called Soames Colina, where she spent her time hiking the trails and searching for slugs later a rainy day. Information technology was there she learned an awe of nature.

Over the years, every bit she travelled back to Vancouver from Philadelphia, Dhillon-Richardson noticed something: The environment that she loved so dearly was changing in front of her, the issue of rapid climatic change. And she constitute that nigh people didn't share the same respect and beloved for the environment that she did.

"When I got older, I started realizing in the earth effectually me that things weren't right," says Dhillon-Richardson, who moved to University City so her mom could stop her Ph.D. in anthropology at Penn. "I wanted to do my best to protect [the environs] the best way I could."

"I recollect one of the near crucial things I've learned so far in this unabridged journey is that there's promise," she says. "[Many people] are afraid. Past having these experiences, you run into people who are very positive, and they're positive virtually the time to come. There's so many great people out in that location who are doing amazing work."

Now 17, and a senior at Springside Anecdote Hill Academy, Dhillon-Richardson has turned that desire to protect the earth into an all-twenty-four hours Girls Climate change Summit in Philadelphia, with over 100 students from eighteen surface area centre and loftier schools. And she has twice travelled to Geneva to participate in the U.N.'due south Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Dhillon-Richardson's environmental activism started between 7th and 8th class, on her annual summertime vacation in Vancouver, when she interned at the David Suzuki Foundation, a Canadian environmental advocacy nonprofit. As role of her internship, she wrote a submission to the U.Due north. Convention contending that Canada was in violation of the international agreement considering its ecology policies were assuasive children to suffer the effects of climate change. (The The states has non signed on to the Convention, which declares civil, economic, health, social and cultural rights of children.)

Her letter was read by the Convention, and she was invited to go to Geneva to encounter with delegates. She attended the Convention again last twelvemonth, this time as a speaker on an expert console near the impact of climate change on children, forth with other young leaders and environmental activists. Her speech was about environmental degradation and its impacts on children (see video hither).

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"I think one of the most crucial things I've learned so far in this unabridged journey is that in that location'south hope," she says. "[Many people] are afraid. Past having these experiences, you encounter people who are very positive, and they're positive nearly the future. In that location's so many great people out there who are doing amazing work."

Dhillon-Richardson says the all-time part of her "humbling" trips to the U.N. was meeting different people from all over the world, like 18-twelvemonth-quondam Brianna Fruean, an environmental activist from Samoa, with whom she has become friends.

Since the summer, Dhillon-Richardson has been learning nonstop nearly climatic change to set up for her tertiary Climate Summit, to be held in April. The one-day briefing, held at Springside, has iv goals: To educate girls virtually climatic change; encourage girls to participate in issues impacting the world; brainstorm ideas about climate justice; and plant a network of young, passionate climate leaders in Philadelphia. The twenty-four hours is jampacked with workshops by local organizations to discuss their work, and how they're facing climate change, like the Franklin Institute and the Philadelphia Zoo.

Dhillon-Richardson conceived of the Climate Tiptop in 9th grade, after attention her offset U.N. panel, and developed it through Springside's Venture Incubator entrepreneurship programme. The first twelvemonth, in 2015, the summit drew 65 students from 12 schools. Information technology has grown in size and scope every year since.

"I recollect that at terminal yr'southward summit, the workshops were more than relevant and more focused," Dhillon-Richardson said. "The quality of the workshops take really improved from the first year to the second."

Although she'll exist off to college in the fall—she doesn't yet know where—Dhillon-Richardson is setting her summit up to become a Philadelphia staple even without her. She'due south recruiting a student team of Springside freshmen and sophomores to accept over when she leaves. And she is creating a nonprofit called Girls for Climate Justice, to launch by the end of 2017, that will host the yearly peak. Girls for Climate Justice will also host News Activeness Network, a web log for her and "like-minded" students to have conversations about climate alter. Somewhen, Dhillon-Richardson plans for the nonprofit to provide grants and funding for students to create their own climate summits, throughout the country.

"I retrieve 1 of the most crucial things I've learned so far in this entire journey is that at that place'southward hope," she says. "[Many people] are afraid, there's a lot of negative press. By having these experiences, yous meet people who are very positive, and they're positive about the futurity. In that location's so many cracking people out there who are doing amazing work."

Photos past Sabina Louise Pierce

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Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/rehka-dhillon-richardson-girls-climate-change-summit/

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