This is also confirmed by the latest report coordinated by the World Meteorological Organization, according to which climate change is having a devastating impact on Africa and its inhabitants.

Currently, 1 billion children worldwide are at ‘extremely high’ risk from the impacts of the climate crisis; 850 million children (1 in 3) live in areas where at least four climate and environmental shocks overlap; 330 million children – 1 in 7 – live in areas affected by at least five major shocks. (UNICEF data)

From the very beginning, the approach of the DREAM Program of Sant’Egidio has employed energies to combat the misuse of natural resources and to promote eco-sustainable initiatives, aimed at creating and expanding an ecological culture that could provide greater stability.
This is why the DREAM centres in Malawi, Guinea, Tanzania, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic have been set up. Del Congo and in the Central African Republic have all been equipped with solar energy systems. The photovoltaic system makes it possible to immediately reduce the use of diesel generators, continuing along the path of de-carbonisation.

This is also the direction taken by the creation of ‘community gardens’ whose protagonists and beneficiaries are the people with HIV followed by the Programme who, assisted by agricultural experts, recover traditional productions and learn new cultivation techniques. This enhances biodiversity and makes it possible to combat food vulnerability linked to climate change.

In the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, where electricity shortages and hunger are endemic, this type of activity is a first guarantee of efficiency as well as a virtuous example of responsible use of the environment.