Awareness and Education of Climate Change Effects through Visual Arts in Mombasa

Climate change has been impacting citizens all over the globe. However, coastal cities of developing countries are often the most affected due to the cities intensified demand for the production and consumption of goods, transport, and settlement. Because of this large demand, cities like Mombasa have struggled to keep up with rapid population growth resulting in a large upsurge of waste generation and pollution. To combat this waste growth, many coastal cities including Mombasa are relying on open land disposal and burning of trash causing significant effects on the environment. This creates a large source of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions which contributes to the toxicity of air, global climate warming and other climate impacts.

Awareness and education about climate events and the effects of climate change is a large step to creating a more sustainable environment and visual arts are a great way to display awareness messages. The Technical University of Mombasa and the County Government of Mombasa are choosing to bring recognition to this issue by artistically depicting awareness content and solutions to waste management issues. To do this, Bachelor of Journalism and Mass Communication students will create an exhibition on climate change which will display some of the visual art created by the participants depicting the causes and solutions to waste management. The exhibition will open the workshop learnings to a larger audience in Mombasa and the coastal region of Kenya. 

This program will specifically focus on community engagement to understand the issues around waste management and climate change from the perspective of community members. To do this, students will engage with the county’s Department of Environment to understand the current approaches and plans for waste management and climate change in the county. Members of the Bachelor of Arts in Development Studies will look to participate in areas of awareness creation, community advocacy, lobbying, and partnerships. Students from the Bachelor of Marine Resource Management program will develop content for awareness and carry out a waste audit to find specific ways to lower waste in the community. Members of the Bachelor of Business and Information Technology school will also be assisting communities in developing future projects for investment in waste management and green enterprise. 

Using the EPIC model approach, students involved in the project will connect with the community while leading and attending workshops speaking to members from the county government of Mombasa and the local community about waste management solutions. Students will also be developing case studies to be incorporated into the following academic programs at the university; Development Studies, Journalism and Mass Communication, Marine Resource management, and ICT. The program will span from September 2023 to July 2024 and will look to create awareness around the climate impacts of waste and educate community citizens on how to reduce waste through visual art. This project demonstrates how the EPIC model can be used in unique ways to solve a growing issue and contributing greatly to climate change.

This project is ongoing and will be finished in July of 2024.