The Power of Youth

Climate change is being addressed all over the world, with countless organizations and movements that allow voices to be heard. However, specific people have had significant impacts on this crisis of climate change. It is important to highlight and recognize these activists for all the work they do. Ilyess El Korbi, Lesein Mutunkei, and Leah Namugerwa are three youth activists who have not put a pause on their passion.

Ilyess El Korbi

Ilyess El Korbi is a Ukrainian activist who grew up in Morocco but returned to his birthplace of Ukraine when he was 14 years old. In 2019 he started to participate in numerous climate protests. He is currently the Board Secretary for Fridays for Future — an organized global climate strike movement — in Ukraine. When the Ukrainian-Russian war started, El Korbi moved to Berlin, where he is now raising awareness about the issue of climate change and the crisis in Ukraine.

Lesein Mutunkei

An 18-year-old from Kenya, Lesein Mutunkei combines his two passions of soccer and climate change activism. For instance, every time he scores a goal, he plants 11 trees — one to represent each player on his team — in order to combat Kenya’s daily loss of forest area. Mutunkei is also the founder of Trees4Goals, an initiative that has planted over 5,500 trees. It is reaching out to others to maximize its impact across the globe.

Leah Namugerwa

An 18-year-old climate activist from Uganda, Leah Namugerwa celebrated her 15th birthday by planting 200 trees. Namugerwa also formed the Birthday Trees project to give out seedlings to those who wish to celebrate their birthdays by planting trees. She is also known for starting petitions to end the usage of plastic bags in Uganda and showing support for school strikes relating to climate change.

As youth climate activists continue to band together and shed light on the threat of climate change, it is demonstrated that people can collectively create a greener future.