Priyanka Lalla’s focus on educating children, particularly in marginalised communities, about climate change and environmental responsibility aligns with the IWD 2025 goal of accelerating action towards a sustainable future.
Lead Editor-Newsgathering
ryan.bachoo@cnc3.co.tt
In the complex world of communicating climate change, Priyanka Lalla is targeting an often marginalised group.
This 18 year old has embarked on a series titled Svara’s Climate Series. The books are named after her younger sister, whom she said inspired her when she took on this mission.
The idea of the series came after Lalla attended the United Nations General Assembly’s “Transforming Education Summit” in New York in 2022 as a UNICEF Youth Advocate. She said that the summit was convened in response to a global crisis in education after the COVID-19 pandemic when gaps were seen in equity and inclusion, quality, and relevance. A significant focus of the summit was the knowledge gap in climate education.
Lalla felt compelled to seek initiatives to bridge that gap. She started the series with Svara’s Ocean Adventures in 2022, with the protagonist in the book travelling the Caribbean Sea. The sea creatures would share their challenges in the changing and harmful environment and what they would like her to do to help them.
She further explained how the project started, saying, “I went to Svara and asked her advice about the books as she likes to read about animals in their natural habitat, she also knew about what her friends would find interesting and her insights were greatly valuable. I believe she had to be a part of this book.”
Lalla wanted a character in the book that spoke to other children, where they could see themselves in that character and relate as they were the same age, living on an island and enjoying the ocean. She said her little sister was even more passionate about the environment than she is. As a result of the sister’s passion for the environment, their household does not use plastic bags or single-use plastics.
She aims to build a community with her series where readers can engage with each other. The book has been translated into Spanish to make it available to the Venezuelan migrant children who live in T&T. She believes that it was also a way to help those children feel responsible for their new home. Lalla also speaks Spanish. Through the support of UNICEF and USAID, the book is available in 18 English-speaking territories in the Caribbean.
She then published a second book titled Svara’s Mangrove Adventures. It follows a similar plot. Lalla said the book was inspired by a blog she wrote on “Climate Change and Biodiversity,” which highlights the importance of our nation’s mangroves and the urgency to protect them. This book is available in English and has since been translated into Portuguese by UNICEF to help children in Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Cabo Verde appreciate the significance of their mangrove systems. Lalla indicated that this collaboration is a testimony that small steps lead to great impact.
She told WE Magazine, “Essentially the books demonstrate how climate change is impacting our region, our specific communities, and more importantly, it aims to empower its readers to feel engaged and encouraged when taking climate action.”
She is now working on a third book in the series entitled Svara’s Rainforest Adventures. Her research for this book is supported by a young person who lives in the Congo Basin. She has plans to expand the series to include other ecosystems.
“The goal is to target every ecosystem, empowering children to have access to information to help them to understand how they are affected in their unique circumstances, and how they can individually and collectively make an impact,” Lalla explained.
Lalla said her books aim to “express the lived experiences and express the different perspectives of children and young people.”
She added, “There is a saying, ‘Never for youth, without youth,’ and I truly believe that and I think it’s so important to educate our youth.”
Lalla went further in saying, “It honestly starts with something as simple as a children’s climate education book in a school library or how our children are educated about the changes in our environment due to plastic pollution. I strongly believe that how we engage with children and include them in the conversations about their future is critical to ensuring their motivation to make a meaningful contribution to protecting and preserving their environment.”
A student at The International School of Port of Spain (ISPS), Lalla said we must also change the way we communicate with children and young people about the topic of our environment. She said it should be a goal to achieve and it should be part of our culture, our daily habits, how we live and how we interact with one another.
When Lalla started her climate activism work, Svara was only two years old, and so, she said, her little sister has grown up with her learning about the environment and the impact of climate change. They grew up enjoying the beaches of T&T, and she would write journals about her days at the beach. This led to her work as a climate activist, which she started at age ten.
She said it was critical to help children and young people understand the intricacies of the world around them.
Children have rights, but they also have responsibilities, she stressed. This is the message Lalla wants to send to other youth around the world. “You can make a difference. You can be part of this change regardless of your circumstances,” she added.
Lalla is also a black belt in jujutsu, having started when she was five years old. She also enjoys scuba diving and replanting corals. She has also spent time as a Child Rights Ambassador attached to the Office of the Prime Minister, bridging the gap between children’s rights and responsibilities with her focus on child rights to education, health, protection, and the environment with special attention to climate justice.
Her most recent work includes a contribution to Generation Plastic, a UNICEF report that examines the impact of plastics on children’s health and future.
For this young woman who is passionate about changing the course of a warming world, she has immediately started passing on her knowledge to a younger generation that she feels desperately needs to understand the world they are going to grow up in.
