WHY I STRIKE FOR CLIMATE, AND WHY YOU NEED TO JOIN ME.

“I am striking for climate” Since 2017, Hilda Flavia Nakabuye has been working with a team of six friends to organize the Fridays  for Future Uganda campaign. The campaign focuses on climate change issues, demanding action  from leaders, corporate bodies and communities to tackle climate change. “Growing up as a young girl in Wakiso district in Central Uganda, I saw the effects of climate change on my community,” Nakabuye says.  “I did not know what precise ly this was and what the causes were, until I attended  the Green Climate Campaign Africa dialogue at Kampala International University in  2017.” For Nakabuye,  listening to the causes and consequences of climate change and the speakers’ conclusion that little was  being done to tackle the  problem ‘broke [her] spirit’. “I was surprised to learn that the effects we were facing in our  community were because of climate change. I felt terrible after knowing this but, at the same time, I also felt the determination to play a part in finding the solution,” she adds. In 2018, Nakabuye and  friends launched a Green Climate Campaign chapter at Kampala International University where they campaigned for a clean environment. They have so far motivated over 70 other students to join in  their campaign. Since then, every Friday she stages a school strike for climate on the streets of  Kampala, in public places and communities to emphasize the need for urgent action. She also carries  out awareness raising on climate change in communities, schools and social gatherings. “In January  2019, inspired by the Fridays4future movement campaign of Swedish climate activist Greta  Theunberg, I mobilized my friends and we started the Fridays4Future Uganda campaign in Kampala,” Nakabuye adds. One of her flagship campaigns is the weekly lake shore clean up where she mobilizes  her friends to pick plastics and biodegradable waste along the shores of Lake Victoria. She also  created Climate Striker Diaries, an online platform where she informs her readers of her engagement  in the climate strike in an attempt to inspire more people to join the movement. Nakabuye says that  she “strives to encourage more students in particular and youths in general to join, so that together we can add our voices to call on political leaders to declare a climate emergency and take action to combat climate change.” She also calls on community members to take individual and collective responsibility to reduce their  carbon footprint; and on youths to stand up, speak out, and fight for their future by joining the Fridays4future Uganda movement. At 22, like many of her fellow campaigners, Nakabuye refuses to be silent and watch the environment continuously degraded by the effects of climate change.  “Giving up is not an option, action no matter how small is required until someone somewhere hears  our appeal”, she insists. complied by OHCHR.org #WorldEnvironmentDay.