Five years ago, CTU academic Mydah Kabingue was just one of the thousands of attendees in the Climate Reality Leadership Corps Global Training in Miami, Florida; now she gets to share her expertise before the same audience after being selected as one of the 32 “Pinoy Mentors.”
Notified of her role on June 24th, Kabingue said in a statement that her responsibility is more on training a new breed of climate reality leaders from July 18th through 26th. Though unconventional, the online platform of putting across information could draw thousands from across the globe toward listening to the climate reality narratives that have been going on for years.
Eventually, she finds herself in a diverse group of trainers who are medical practitioners, volunteers, business leaders, community organizers, and public servants selected on the basis of active participation in the Climate Reality Organization (CRO) in the Philippines, evaluated by those in its US headquarters.
Her involvement in the “Light up Cebu” and “Light up Philippines” projects, as what she thought, might have caught their attention. These were launched a few years back, in partnership with Junior Chamber International (JCI) Philippines, that have provided remote households solar kits in favor of school kids to have light as they study at night. The endeavors reaped success stories that never failed to amuse media outlets.
Her emphasis has always been on the essence of the ecosystem in people’s lives. “We highly rely on nature. We live in its ecosystem, so by destroying it we also destroy ourselves, hence the need to nurture and protect.” As a mother herself, she said in an interview with UICPA back in 2017 that a breathing planet suits posterity.
In relation to the present health crisis, she vividly painted the impact of people’s attitudes on the planet’s condition. She went on explaining that the problem is not just climate change but the systems engulfing human beings. For her, the present global shift due to the spread of COVID-19 from China shows the same pattern of systemic destruction causing every aspect of life overturned.
Meanwhile, speakers would also be virtually talking about real solutions to the climate problem, led by former US Vice President Al Gore who will be joined by equally compelling speakers for the 8-day event.
She mentioned how the organization has grown with Al Gore’s leadership. With this year’s event, she hopes that people will not flout the principle of finding interconnections between and among phenomena like climate change and pandemic.
As for future activities of CRO Phils., she said that one of them yet to be finalized is the creation of clusters to deepen its community engagement. Its vision to have more people join the dialogue is one that got her and many others into conducting projects making people more aware of issues that matter.
CTU has constantly been supportive of the climate change advocacy that resulted in the creation of the University Climate Change Center, with her as the director up until 2018 before relinquishing the designation to focus on a certain project. At present she chairs the Development Communication Department. /UICPA