$1.8 million given toward climate change resilience for African Nova Scotian communities
Global News
The province is investing nearly $2 million to help African Nova Scotian communities adapt to climate change. Twenty-five communities will receive climate resilience plans.
The province is investing $1.8 million to help African Nova Scotian communities adapt to climate change.
The funding for The Enrich Project was announced in East Preston by provincial Environment and Climate Change Minister Tim Halman on Tuesday.
The organization examines the social, environmental, political, and health effects of environmental racism in marginalized communities across Canada. The program will result in climate resilience plans being developed for 25 African Nova Scotian communities.
“I think African Nova Scotians are forgotten on many fronts,” said Ingrid Waldron, the founder of The Enrich Project.
Through her work on environmental racism, Waldron says she discovered many Black communities have been missing from the conversation around climate change.
“They may not have involved themselves as it didn’t seem relevant, and others don’t engage them,” she said. “That came up loud and clear in the workshops. ‘Nobody comes here,’ they said. ‘Nobody engages us’.”
Waldron says marginalized communities need to be supported.
“Historical injustices have created low-income, poverty, public infrastructure weaknesses and other social determinants of health in those communities,” said Waldron. “When climate change hits, it worsens many of those issues.”