Network for Peace through Dialogue presents
Skype Dialogue with Alina Saba
On Earth Day, 22nd April, we saw Alina Saba
participate alongside three other women in the UN. The conference was
called "Women and Clinate Change."
Alina is from the indigenous community of Limbu in Nepal.
She has a passion for indigenous women's rights.
She has a Masters in research for indigenous political movements.
She at the moment is a researcher at the Mugam Women's Upliftment  Institute
What made you be interested in the climate?
How I am connected with the environment
and climate change is, I got in an opportunity to work
in a climate justice program as a researcher
as an action researcher with a feminist participatory
research in climate justice and this program
documents the impacts of climate change on the lives of
indigenous poor migrant women in Nepal
 
was chosen from the perspective of indigenous women
and I worked with them and the work focuses on the documenting the impacts of climate change
and also building a local movement to have a powerful
voice of the indigenous women in climate policy making
in terms of climate change
and
and also my educational background is in sociology
and I'm really interested in socio-cultural issues of people since my own age
so that is how I got connected with, particularly the climate change
and advocacy and working with the rights of the indigenous peoples
How was it like growing up in your community in Nepal?
I grew up and was born in a small village
in the Western part of Nepal
in a local indigenous community and I was very much connected to the nature
and the natural resources in my village
because we didn't have any kind of like, transportation
or digital communication. Life was really rural
and a remote village, and like what we get from nature
was the only source of living
for the people. So I have a very, kind of emotional and close connection
with the nature since then, so it had a really special place in my heart
and for me there was never a realization
"we should work for the nature," "we should conserve the environment," you know, like
since I was born and raised, it was like inside me already
so I don't know like to say "from this part of age I realized that nature
was important," and "we should share the work of environment," for me it was always there
working as an institution, working as an organization
for defending environment and for climate change
happened after of course my college graduation
when I was in program, and that is how from the formal
side but personally, it was always in me
What advice would you give to someone who just learnt about the environmental crisis?
I think it is very simple if you look at our daily lives and try to self-reflect
and realize because what we eat, the air,
the water we drink everyday and the food, everything comes from the land, the farm
the plants around us so, it is really simple.
There's not much of any big advice
so if we care where our food comes from
where our water comes from, we can understand
how we can, why saving nature is important
and the overwhelming, like, the overwhelming is the, uh
type of development and kind of life we are living
actually
the climate and environments, our nature is really
simple, it's not that overwhelming, so
reduce our consumption of electricity, and carbon, like
carbon footprints and try to really simple and sustainable and environmental
friendly way. It's, I, it's not a very overwhelming thing
and it's really simple if we self reflect on our daily life
the answer is there, that's my opinion on that
and my advice to you
Alina is currently working in Chiang Mai, in Thailand.
I wanted to ask her about the difference in the environment
compared to her community in Nepal
In Thailand here, in Chiang Mai, it;s a really big city
as New York or Lima, I have been to
It's a very small and laid back town, compared to them
but still my village was a remote village as I told you before and everything came from
nature, the food was produced there, the water came from the streams
and we used to walk as long as half an hour
Our seniors used to walk as long as one hour to just
go to the school
there was no any vehicles. I was first saw vehicles when I was like maybe, like six years old?
Everything is so much with the nature
On the equality of education, ethnicity and gender in Limbu, Nepal
Education was a privilege. Not all of the girls were like, thought important
It was not thought important to send a girl child to school
and then education was never thought to be so important
and working and helping in the family was important
and also there was gender bias, like women were not treated equally
and the men and women used to work in the field
women more, like working in the fields, in the house
This was seen as normal, there was no, I never heard anything
like equality for women or gender or things like that.
Growing up in an indigenous community, we were like, because we were much less represented
in the state structures politically
socially, and then also in education
we were much disadvantaged and marginalized community
and even comparing ourselves with the non-indigenous
community, we were treated, kind of, in a less advanced
or, in a very disadvantaged way.
so there was, kind of, I could feel the gender differences
and the differences based on ethnicity when I grew up
like, everything related to indigenous community were treated as a second class
or not to the higher status
so, and it was also, there was also some kind of like understanding, like people's belief that
indigenous peoples cannot read and write and that's not their field, they cannot
you know  the, they cannot excel in education
they are ones who just works int he rural village life
and that is fine for them. So if there was anyone who had a job or achieved a higher
status professionally or in education in other sectors
it used to be amusing or taken by surprise
like how come it could happen? So these are some of the things
from my experience of growing up in the village as a child
The effect of climate change in Limbu
if I compare to where I grew up, yes I can see the differences
because, there is, like cases of erratic rainfall. Food Production has definitely gone below.
The water resources around is not abundant as it used to be.
and the cases of landslides has gone up
and other thing like, temperature, it's not like before
it's much hot than before, in my village, even in my village
and there are like, you know, before there weren't any no mosquitoes
or things like that, now there are like, we need to have,
there are lots of mosquitoes, and because of the rise in temperature
and the crops pattern has been changed because of rise in temperature
that I can feel in my village, and also the community I work
is in, much higher in the mountain regions
for most six to seven, eight months in a year it is covered by snow
and there also the crop pattern has changed
and there is less snowfall and rise in temperature
and erratic rainfall
and one of the worst cases is the cases of landslides
every year, every monsoon, they are losing their crops, ready-to-harvest crops
to the landslides, and if this goes on, they would not have any place to go
and look for other place, they would not have answers to where to go
so these changes I have personally experienced from my community
from village and working in my community
in terms of, during my climate justice program
Alina's earthquake relief efforts in Nepal
The earthquake happened in the Central region of Nepal and I belong to Eastern region
We felt a tremor but there no any physical damages
Or infrastructure damage, but around Kathmandu,
and around the surrounding states, twelve to fourteen states have been hugely impacted
and I was involved in the ground for the Uplift relief work
and so many houses and villages are all level to the ground
the crops, the grains, the food they have
are all damages totally and people have no idea where to go
and still are living in the tents, still, but even in Kathmandu where I used to stay
with my family, we have to come out of our room and we also stayed in outside
For like, about a week because after tremors were coming and coming
it was really tough and rough time
for the places and the people who were impacted by it
It was around the districts which are far from Kathmandu
and some where only accessible through helicopter
or planes because it would take a whole day
or driving to reach there and some places we went by aeroplane
and take a jeep ride and again walk. We used all sorts of transportations
to the communities which were badly impacted by the earthquake
and even though gravel roads, dirt roads which were destroyed by the landslides that were after the earthquake
so the transportation and taking relief to the impacted area, to the remote area
was a big challenge
What specific part of the environment are you mostly interested in?
I have for the climate justice, because in developing countries and most of the poor countries
like Nepal and the rural, indigenous community
who has no, any contribution in global warming are the ones bearing the most biggest brunt
of climate change and those are, climate change and global warming is happening
because of the big historical debt of the developed country
who contributed so much in the greenhouse gas emissions
and my passion lies in climate justice
where I want to advocate that those people who does not have anything
in towards contributing to the global warming should not bare this brunt
all the developed countries should be held accountable
and there has to be a real climate action soon to give them justice
On being heard.....
I'm glad that at least, you are at least, like I am able to explain the meaning behind it and why we are
advocating for it here and in the global south
It is part of our work and advocacy to make people aware
and to understand more about the concept of climate justice
because climate change is not only about impacts of climate change, but we should also, I think it is very
to understand, it's also a social issue, an issue of injustice and in equality
I am glad that many people would be able to listen to our story
and what we are doing here and to my experiences
I would be glad!
Thank you for watching!
Interviewee: Alina Saba
Interviewer: Maisha Maliha
