Sixteen-year old Namugerwa wants to inspire a generation that cares more about a cleaner, safer planet

Sixteen-year-old Ugandan climate activist Leah Namugerwa started protesting for climate justice in February 2019. She’s now a team leader at the Fridays for Future – Uganda, and a founder of Birthday Trees Project.

Namugerwa said that she wanted to make the planet a better place and that keeps her moving.

“I am very passionate about my work because I love what I do and I am ambitious towards making this planet safer,” said Namugerwa in an interview with Nile Post.

She holds school climate strikes, while holding placards with wordings like 'School Strike for Climate’ for passersby to read. Fighting for climate justice is something she does alongside school.

Namugerwa said that she learned about the effects of climate change two years ago and started engaging herself in climate activism at 14 years of age.

"I got to know about the climate crisis in 2019 after watching disturbing images on TV of children dying and displaced by landslides in Eastern Uganda. Most people in my country don’t care, so I felt there was a need for me to come in and take leadership," she said.

Namugerwa’s climate strikes used to happen mostly on Friday afternoons at school but now due to the Coronavirus pandemic, most of these are now scientific.

She has dedicated her social media platforms to amply the gospel of climate justice.

Asked about how her parents perceive this, Namaganda says that her parents have actually been supportive.

Her uncle Tom Mugerwa is a prominent environmentalist in the country, and gives her all the support she needs.

“They play the biggest role in my activism and they have always provided me with everything that is helpful for me to carry out my activism.”

Through her activism, she hopes to create a generation that cares about a safer, cleaner and healthier planet for humans to live.

She said Sweden’s Greta Thunberg, the founder of Fridays for Future, inspires her.

The two met at the COP25 2019 Climate change conference in Madrid, Spain.

Like any other initiative, Namugerwa’s activism has encountered challenges.

She said her biggest concern comes from parents who refuse their children to join her climate strikes, which has stalled the organisation's (Fridays for Future) growth.

Asked if there is one word she would like to pass on to world leaders, Namaganda told Nile Post that “world leaders should know that the pain [from destruction of the environment] will be inevitable."

She said they should accept that they are the cause and the solution [to environmental destruction] because they have let us down.

Uganda is increasingly experiencing prolonged droughts, especially in the north, landslides in the east, and flooding caused in part by the loss of tree cover.

These according to Namugerwa, are warning signs that leaders should not take lightly.