Reverse the Trend:Save Our People, Save Our Planet

Dear Friends,

Time flies when we are empowering young people and providing them with avenues to express themselves on nuclear disarmament affairs. This Fall, we accepted interns from both Columbia University and Drew University. Our interns are Annamaria (Columbia University), Megan (Columbia University), Omar (Drew University), Lia (Drew University), and Shreya (Drew University). 

Last month, to provide them with a platform to express themselves on nuclear disarmament affairs, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Peace Boat US, The Prospect Hill Foundation, and Reverse the Trend: Save Our People, Save Our Planet hosted a side event entitled “Youth Advocacy in the Field of Nuclear Disarmament.” This event served as a forum for youth advocates to come together with established academics and professionals in the field of nuclear disarmament to discuss the critical importance of youth empowerment in creating a world free of nuclear weapons. The speakers were representatives from the Mission of Kazakhstan, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Reverse The Trend: Save Our People, Save Our Planet; Peace Boat US and Youth for the TPNW. The Policy and Advocacy Coordinator of the Nuclear Age Foundation and Project Coordinator of RTT moderated the event.

Through our partnership with the Marshallese Educational Initiative and generous support from the Ploughshares Fund, we selected several Pacific youth activists to spearhead our campaign to raise awareness about the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), in particular the positive obligations of this treaty (victim assistance, environmental remediation, international cooperation and assistance). They will launch a social media campaign on the relationship between the TPNW and environmental justice. 

In late September 2022, RTT Pacific hosted a significant event to commemorate the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. Speakers were from the Mission of Kiribati, ICAN Australia, yDISARM Pacific, the Global Sunrise Project, and the International Center for MultiGenerational Legacies of Trauma. The recording can be found here.

In addition, we are laying the foundation for our ICAN Cities Appeal Movement in Canada. Rooj, our RTT youth coordinator in Canada is working with Camille, a social media expert, on raising awareness and working to get cities and provinces to join the appeal. More information will be available in the coming months. 

We are also pleased to announce that A Journey Home, our documentary based on a community poem by Marshallese youth, has been accepted to the Philadelphia Asian American Festival and the Hawaii International Film Festival.

As we continue to engage with youth, we are preparing an intergenerational documentary about the 1982 March and Rally for Nuclear Disarmament in New York City. Our youth activists, Sajani, Jeremiah, Peter, and Liam are working on this initiative.  

To ensure that our work is sustainable, we would appreciate it if you could donate to our work. Any amount helps, but a donation of at least 50 USD will help empower our youth. Monthly donations are greatly appreciated as well.

Thank you,

Christian N. Ciobanu