Speaker: Geoffrey Okinyi Juma , Nairobi, Kenya
How (and why) are you taking action on climate change solutions in, for, and with your community?
Geoffrey Okinyi Juma : Greetings everybody. My name is Geoffrey Okinyi Juma from Nairobi, Kenya. I am an environmental educator, and this is my story. I come from a community where pollution has been a major challenge. And considering pollution, pollution has been one of the major contributors to the climate change. Not only the uh solid waste pollution, but also the emissions, dangerous gas emissions that are being emitted into our atmosphere, causing damage to the ozone layer. Now, in my capacity as an environmental educator, I have been able to mobilise young people from my community to take part in a conservation and a sustainable conservation. We have been able uh to reach out to young people who are willing to be changed of this, I mean, to be changed, uh, for this great uh planet. We have been able to take part in cleaning the public places, cleaning schools. We have also taken part in cleaning the shores, uh, the Indian Ocean. Right now, I am in Kilifi County. And what we do basically is uh doing the beach cleaning over the weekends. During the school days, I mean the weekdays, I am in school and I engage my learners, my students to take part in cleaning and cleaning the environment. Not forgetting about the tree planting. We also take part in planting trees to help uh reduce the emissions, the CDR carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere.
Who or what inspires/inspired you to care about climate change and climate solutions?
Geoffrey Okinyi Juma : I grew up in the slum areas of Nairobi, and as you know, slum areas. I'm with the challenge Uh, that the people in the slums is pollution. And not just pollution. But waste pollution, solid waste pollution. And uh this has even gotten to another level or even uh Releasing bad emissions into the atmosphere where you pass through some damp sites and get some bad smell. And this was my greatest fear. My greatest fear was just passing and living. The was Without managing them, thinking that it was the work of the municipal or maybe the work of some few chosen individuals. However, upon getting to the university. I was challenged by like-minded youth and friends. Who advised me to take part in uh conserving the environment and also my own community. And now this is when I decided to go back to my streets. And so far we have done a lot in terms of collecting plastics. In terms of recycling. We have always collected the plastic bottles. Yeah, the glass bottles and sorted them separately. And then forwarding them. Uh, to the recycling points, which I hope one day. I will have my own or our organisation will have its own recycling point, so we don't have to look for other avenues.
