Expertise: Climate Activist
Yola Mgogwana’s activism started in 2019, when she was just eleven years old, after she became concerned about pollution, unusual weather patterns, and a looming water crisis in her country. Since then she has been an inspiration for youth in Africa to join her in her fight for climate justice.
Mgogwana has been an active presenter in schools and has repeatedly urged the Government to take urgent action on climate change. She began volunteering with the Earthchild Project in January 2019, which aimed to bring environmental education into communities and classrooms that did not already have access to this knowledge. In March 2019, she joined a youth climate strike and marched to Parliament demanding better policies and justice. Following this event she spoke to an audience of 2,000 youth in Cape Town. In August 2019, she was a keynote speaker at the UNFPA’s symposium on Sexual and Reproductive Health, Gender and Climate Change Resilience in Johannesburg. Her work fits within the increasing recognition amongst youth worldwide that their generation will face the most severe consequences of climate change, although they would have contributed little to the devastation of the environment. Her activism has been inspired by the Zulu word “Ubuntu”, meaning “I am, Because you are”
ACA Dialogues: Understanding Climate Change || African Climate Alliance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfsDgrbGYtQ
YOLA MGOGWANA – CHILD ACTIVIST FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE | Afternoon Express | 9 March 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLfi7frKZ34
A climate message from South Africa’s youth leaders: Yola Mgogwana and Othembele Dyantyi.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ng7ODUUt6s
