Letters from the Global South: Pop-Up Exhibition

Tue 26/11/2024

A family-friendly exhibition called Letters from the Global South is coming to Essex this month to highlight the impact of the climate and nature crisis on vulnerable communities across the world.

We're thrilled to be hosting the exhibition as it travels between Chelmsford Library, North Melbourne Library, Great Baddow Library and South Woodham Ferrers Library. It is free to view and open to everyone. Find dates at each location below!

Created using letters and pictures by school children from countries like Nigeria, Pakistan, and South Africa, Letters from the Global South offers a window into how children in other parts of the world are coping with the changes that are happening around them as global temperatures rise. It has already travelled around the UK visiting London, Leicester, Birmingham, Shropshire, Canterbury, and North Devon.

Dr Alessandra Palange, the exhibition’s curator, says:

‘We asked children around the world to tell us how the climate and nature crisis is affecting their everyday lives. Within a few months, we received many handwritten letters, emails, photos and drawings from communities already experiencing the very real impacts of climate change and environmental destruction. The power of the exhibition comes from letting us hear the voices of people who we would otherwise never know existed. These are ordinary people, just like us, who live in communities that are on the frontlines of climate breakdown.’

Created by Zero Hour and Muslims Declare, the exhibition raises awareness about the cross-party Climate and Nature Bill, landmark legislation that will make the UK’s existing international commitments on climate and nature legally binding.

Frances Quintrell, an Essex resident who helped bring the exhibition to the county, says:

‘It’s fantastic to see Essex Libraries supporting this impactful exhibition and giving children from across the world a voice. You only have to turn on the news to see the devastation that the climate and nature crisis is already causing, from the floods in Spain to crop failure in East Africa. This exhibition is a reminder that it is often those who have done the least to cause this crisis who suffer the most from it.’