Voices

The Girl who Saved the Umbrella Trees

One evening on the 10th day of February 1996, Mzee Amin Hussein was counting his goats, when he heard a baby crying. He knew a baby had been born.

Rim Ben Soud: a woman farmer in Tunisia with initiative and solutions

Rim Ben Soud lives in Baddar village in Cap Bon, North East Tunisia. It’s a community that is mostly dependent on farming and agricultural activities. A farmer herself, Rim has become well known for founding a local women’s group for agriculture development (GDAF), and recently started her own eco-tourism project.

Restoring mangroves to protect homes and livelihoods

Joni J. Messakh lives in Tanah Merah Village in Indonesia, a community that is mostly dependent on fishing activities. His family has become well known for their work to save the mangrove trees that are key to preserving the community’s safety and livelihood.

A voice for Just Climate Action – Zulma Franco

Zulma Franco is a community leader for the Ishyr Ybytoso people and a teacher in the community Virgen Santísima, in Fuerte Olimpo. She is a charismatic woman, which inspires and motivates the Ishyr community in Fuerte Olimpo and beyond.

Women take on climate change in Zambia

Zambia is being hard hit by climate change, which is causing more frequent and severe droughts, flash floods and changes in the growing season. One of the reasons Zambia is so vulnerable to climate change – particularly droughts – is because 300,000 hectares of trees are being lost to deforestation each year because of charcoal production.

A treasure of untold stories

My name is Lydia Wanjiku, CEO at Lensational. I joined Lensational in February 2015 after learning about it through a tweet by Hivos International about an organization empowering women using photography. I will tell a story of visual stories, and how these are told through the eyes of many women at the frontline of climate change.

Making global climate finance work for local solutions

How to mobilize climate finance is one of the key recent debates sparked by the climate crisis. The first step is to recognize that not all countries bear the same responsibility for the crisis, nor are they equally able to respond to it. This means that those countries which have contributed most to the climate crisis are obliged to provide financial resources to assist developing countries implement climate action plans. But this is just the supply side: the way finance is mobilized. The way the money is spent is more complex. How best to distribute (enough) climate finance justly and equitably is a tricky question. One that’s at the heart of climate justice. Let’s get to the bottom of it!.

Young Kenyan activist fights for climate justice

Julius Mbatia is a young Kenyan climate activist. He has been pushing for years for policies that will reduce the impacts of climate change that are forcing many people in his country to earn less, live in poverty, and go hungry.

Telma and her Indigenous community fighting for the Amazon

In Brazil, Telma heads the Union of Indigenous Women of the Brazilian Amazon (UMIAB), an organization that champions the rights of Indigenous women. Her community lives on the Mangueira Araçá lands in the Amajari region, where the climate crisis is a cause for deep concern. “We have been fighting for years to preserve our territory and to protect the Amazon rainforest from mining and pollution. Now we have to fight against climate change,” she sighs

Yuliana campaigns for the climate with saplings

Yuliana travels through Indonesia with the innovative action group Geng Motor Imut to raise awareness about climate change and sustainability. The effects of climate change are noticeable wherever she looks. “The weather is getting warmer, water reserves are drying up, the rainfall is erratic, and droughts last longer. This year in Kefa City it’s been intensely hot. Just five years ago, it tended to be cool from the afternoon until morning. But now, it’s hot all day,” she says.