EXCERPT: She was recently named by Time as one of the 15 women leading the fight against climate change. Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim tells Kera Sherwood-O’Regan about the effects of the changing climate on the village she grew up in in Chad, especially on women and girls, and what spurred her to action.
Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim is an indigenous climate activist and geographer from the Mbororo pastoralist community in Chad, and is deeply passionate about the rights of indigenous women and girls. Having set up a community organisation at age 15, and realising the connection between women’s rights and environmental rights, she has been involved in climate action ever since, and is now one of the most recognised and respected climate activists in the African region and abroad.
She says, “I got involved in climate change because of my community. We have a lake called Lake Chad which was, when I was younger, around 10,000 kilometres square. When I was growing up the lake was shrinking. Now the lake has lost about 90% of its water, so growing up and seeing, with my own eyes, nature shrinking and seeing my community struggling, for me it was normal to fight against climate change.”
– Full story on The Spinoff here.
keraoregan.wordpress.com 