Fully Focused

guest blog by Cindy Sasha

At the big climate demonstration last March, 20,000 people marched together in desperation to shout about climate change to all political parties before the UK general election, hoping the message would sink into the propaganda fog that surrounds us daily. As I observed the demonstration I saw the same supporters, grass roots activists and NGO’s who come out again and again fighting to save the future. This time, I questioned where are the angry kids whose futures are being destroyed by politicians and giants, why aren’t they marching with us, leading the way with their fists in the air?

I was very fortunate to meet Mike Sani from Bite the Ballot, a cool enthusiastic guy who is passionate about inspiring young people. On his own he set up Bite the Ballot and campaigned to encourage young people to vote at the UK general election. He wanted to target the iPad generation who have become disengaged with the world. At the same time I met Teddy Nygh the founder of Fully Focused, an organisation which employs young people to make films targeted at young people. Teddy introduced me to the Fully Focused team who documented the London Riots in 2011, a political film showing a different side to what the media portrayed. I was impressed by these young urban teenagers who were so on it with their mission to tackle social change. Climate Revolution works with Time to Act who organised the last climate march; we all loved Mike and Teddy’s youth engagement work and from this a project was born to engage the iPad generation to do one thing: to march at The People’s March for Climate, Justice and Jobs in London on 29 November and help send out a loud noise to the world. How would they do this? By making a short film aimed only at the young, using spoken word by a famous grime artist ‘Mic Righteous’ to narrate a story of climate destruction. At the same time the video will send a message out saying to come march in November. Bite the Ballot is using the video to build a lesson plan that will be distributed through schools and academies, showing the importance of demonstrating, standing up to politicians and how we need to protect our planet!

The video hopes to inspire a new generation who understand the importance of their future and the dangerous impact climate change will have on their lives. They definitely don’t want mass extinction! This is a real chance to get younger people connected to the world and importantly to DEMONSTRATE!

The Fully Focused team

Using social media and the large networks which Fully Focused, Bite the Ballot and Time to Act are part of, we anticipate that it will wake up some teen rebellious spirit and bring a new wave of protesters. Exciting yes, because it is TIME TO ACT, its time for a CLIMATE REVOLUTION!

The video will be launched on Climate Revolution on the 29^th of October.