Vanessa Nakate - Little People, Big Dreams

As a kid, when little Vanessa heard about climate change, she thought it was something that happened on the other side of the world. As an adult, she saw how droughts in her own country led to crop failure that left families hungry. Inspired by other activists, Vanessa took a stand and began campaigning to save the Congolian rainforests. Soon, she was invited to take her campaign around the world.  

In 2020, Vanessa participated in an important summit about climate change. But when she was cropped out of a photograph featuring other climate-change activists, it felt like not just her contribution to the movement had been erased, but that the needs of a whole continent had been disregarded.

It was a moment that shocked the world, but it spurred Vanessa on to raise her voice louder and to fight harder for climate justice for Africans. Today, she continues to be a leader in the climate-change movement and a voice of her generation.