Laudato Voices | Using Music, Dance, and Drama to Promote Environmental Conservation | Dec 20, 2025
In Uganda, creative arts have always been a powerful way of educating, shaping values, and mobilizing communities. Music, Dance, and Drama (MDD) speak directly to the heart, making them effective tools for promoting environmental conservation, especially among young people.
Through our Laudato Si Clubs, students develop strategic advocacy, practical initiatives, and innovations to promote ecological conservation and sustainability. In one of the recently concluded Laudato Si Green Festivals in Jinja Diocese. Laudato Youth showcased exceptional talents that created awareness about Climate Change and environmental Conservation.
Inspired by Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’, the Laudato Si’ Clubs under the Laudato Youth Initiative are intentionally using these talents in schools to nurture ecological awareness and responsibility. Through these clubs, young people are helped to understand that caring for creation is not only a scientific or technical task, but also a faith response and a moral duty.
In schools where Laudato Si’ Clubs are active, students compose songs about tree planting, climate change, and protection of water sources; they showcase traditional and contemporary dances that celebrate nature and warn against environmental destruction; and they perform dramas that highlight real-life challenges such as deforestation, poor waste management, and climate-related disasters. These performances make the message of environmental stewardship relatable, memorable, and deeply rooted in local culture.
The Laudato Youth Initiative uses this MDD approach to mentor clubs, guide patrons, and provide thematic direction so that creativity is clearly linked to the teachings of Laudato Si’. By integrating faith, culture, and creativity, the clubs help students internalize the Church’s call to “care for our common home” and to see themselves as active agents of change.
This approach has also proven effective beyond the school compound. Performances at school open days, parish events, and community celebrations allow Laudato Si’ Clubs to share the message with parents, teachers, and local communities. In this way, young people become evangelizers of ecological conversion, inspiring others through their God-given talents.
By fostering Music, Dance, and Drama in schools, Laudato Si’ Clubs by the Laudato Youth Initiative are not only conserving the environment but also forming creative, confident, and faith-filled young Catholics. They demonstrate that when talents are offered in service of creation, environmental conservation becomes joyful, inclusive, and sustainable.
