My name is Annika and I’m one of the five new assets of Wake-Up Call (or four and a half, since Calle has been a part of the organization before). I went on the Wake Up Call train together with the new recruits Maja, Valter and Mia last weekend and already Tuesday morning I got to go on my first gig.

I set the alarm for 5.15 am and got up to go to work before sunrise (first time this season). Sven and I got on a train to Sölvesborg and talked constantly (over some magic vanilla buns) during the two hour ride there, going through the workshop we were gonna have with 170 8th and 9th graders, what to expect and what to focus on. Initially, the students were to see a play by the theater group Teater Barbara, which brought up the environmental issues and climate change that we humans have imposed on our planet. Followingly, Sven and I were to inspire the students in smaller groups and help them formulate ideas for a better world and help them develop those ideas into projects able to be carried out.
The play was truly interesting and well elaborated, and the actors Anders, Johan and Adriana brought up several global problems that need solving. The teen audience was caught till the end and Sven and I got up on stage to present ourselves during the students’ ovations.
Splitting up into more manageably sized groups, Sven and I held two workshops each with the 14-16 year olds, and it was so much fun to hear what they wanted to do to create a better world! For example, what do you think of collecting money to plant trees in southern Sahara to prevent the spreading desertification? Or arrange a charity concert for the sake of supporting hedgehogs; make 50 % of Sweden’s population drive environmental cars within 5 years; or take care of the recycling for elderly who cannot do it themselves? Or why not start up a bike taxi company in Sölvesborg, where the teenagers are lacking buses later in the evenings and on weekends, and send the profit to orphanages in Haiti?
There are so many ideas on how to change our current situation and I wish the sky was the limit, but most ideas are never even put into words. But it was great fun meeting these teenagers, and I hope they were at least as inspired as I was! Can’t wait till the next gig! 😀
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