Only One Earth: Why Women Must Lead Sustainable Change

In this episode of SI Voices, host Dawn Marie Lemonds engages with Mary Muia and Shaleen Wanjiru, SI Representatives to the United Nations, to discuss the critical role of women in leading sustainable change amidst the climate crisis. The conversation highlights the disproportionate impact of climate change on women and girls, particularly in Africa, and explores the health and mental health challenges they face. The speakers emphasize the importance of women's leadership in climate action and the need for youth involvement in decision-making processes. They share insights on local and national initiatives aimed at addressing climate change and the significance of community engagement in fostering sustainable practices.

Transcript

Welcome to SI Voices, the podcast series from Soroptimist International, a global organization that educates, empowers, and enables women and girls. We work at grassroot level with communities and advocate internationally to achieve gender equality and improve the lives of women and girls. In our podcast series, we will address the barriers to inequality by talking to Soroptimists, partner NGOs, other organizations, women's rights activists, leaders, and policymakers. I'm your host, Dawn Marie Lemons, and today I'm talking to a long -time friend, Mary Muia, who is our S IUN representative in Nairobi, and also my new friend, Shaleen Wanjiru, SIUN representative who was also based in Nairobi.

Welcome Mary and Shaleen. I'm delighted to have you both join us today to discuss today's topic, Only One Earth, Why Women Must Lead Sustainable Change. We will be speaking to Mary and Shaleen to gain a deeper understanding of the issues that they see in Africa. Now, I think our listeners want to meet you, Mary and Shaleen, and learn a little bit about your role at SI.

I'm glad and very excited to join you on this great topic. Yes, my name is Mary Muia. I am a Soroptimist based in Kenya, Nairobi, and I'm a public health professional. I work with adolescent girls and young women to prevent gender -based violence, teenage pregnancies, and also to do climate action work.

I'm Shaleen Wanjiru. I'm a new Soroptimist I would say. I was chartered last year in November. And so far, the Soroptimist journey, it has been an exciting one, given that I recently got a role to represent the youth and the SI youth at the UN headquarters here in Nairobi. So it's been an exciting, exciting journey. Today's topic, it's quite important and it's a topic that speaks to heart, only one earth and why women must lead in sustainable change. I personally will be speaking more in context on how young women like me and others can lead to sustainable change.

To start out with, I'm going to ask you both questions about how women and girls are disproportionately affected by the climate crisis. What are the different ways in which women and girls are impacted and why?

So to get a context, I think we want to understand a little bit about the specific client crisis issues that are particularly prevalent in Kenya and how do they impact women and girls?

I think climate gender inequality and coupled with climate crisis is not a new threat. It has been a very great challenge for us over the years. And it has become more of a problem again and again because of the intensity of the changes that we have seen in our environment. Just to reflect on the work that I do on the nexus of between health and climate.

We have seen more health problems as a result of climate change and the climate challenges. We have seen a lot of young women that have been left without a household or without livelihoods because we've had adverse droughts or floods. And recently here in Kenya, we've had a lot of rainfall that has never been before. we witnessed a lot of deaths and loss of lives that we've never seen.

Up in the north, I remember in Tunisia, we had very big floods again and a lot of water. And we also had a lot of loss of lives. Together with Morocco, we had a lot of earthquake, a very big natural disaster that came as part of climate change. And down south, I cannot count to you the number of drought related diseases and cases that we are dealing with in Africa. So yes, climate change is a big problem and it affects women and girls in disproportionate measures because firstly women are very much aligned to agriculture and they rely so much on crops that they grow to sell to make economic empowerment. So with all these problems they lose not only their economic empowerment but socially and their security is at being at risk because of climate change and the impact that we have seen.

Climate change has and can continually disrupt access to education for young girls as they may be required to help their families cope up with environmental challenges. For example, in our country, we have communities which are pastoral communities. That means these are communities that move from one place to another looking for pasture for their livestock, which is their source of livelihood. The rotation that they used to have when it comes to the pastoralism, like when it comes to the rotation, the regions, how they used to, the system that they had in place so that to ensure all their children, attend schools, it's disrupted. So in this process, you meet many young girls, especially in the pastoral communities, miss out on education, which is a very essential part. And obviously, when someone misses education, access to opportunities and decision making is also denied. So despite being disproportionately affected, women, young women, are often excluded from decision-making processes related to climate and mitigation. So you see one factor leads to the other. 

And also, last but not least, climate change impacts agriculture and food production, affecting food security that you can't afford meals from your shamba, from the garden that you have, you meet these young women. They are forced to sell their bodies. You meet this with these young women start engaging into sex for food like the way we have sex for sanitary towels or we had that's a challenge, especially in our region, in our Western region, due to the decline of fish in the lake, young women are being forced to sell sex so that they can be able to afford food. And in the process, you meet things like HIV and AIDS are transmitted very fastly and sexually transmitted infections on the rise on those regions. It affects women mostly, and in this case, young girls and women are the most affected by climate change.

You both have started addressing that women and girls are disproportionately affected by climate crisis. Could you kind of elaborate a little bit more on that, Mary?

In terms of health, I say that women's health is really very much aligned to nature. And in terms of the drought and the floods related conditions, a lot of mothers cannot access health services. For example, a pregnant woman will not be able to go for antenatal care. And if she was pregnant and we have extreme heat or weather that is extreme temperatures, some could lead to stillbirth. And so we, more often than not, we see increased neonatal and child outcomes that are being decreased or going the wrong way because women lacked access to healthcare because of weather and the climatic changes. On the other hand, we know that women have a good understanding about the environment. And so given the ability to plan, then they would be in a better position to take a lead. But because they are very much affected, they become like victims of climate and environmental problems as opposed to be actors. 

But yet we know that they are really placed very well to be able to be at the forefront to make actions that will prevent further impact or negative impacts towards their lives. When women are growing up, we know that in terms of physiological changes, women have got more fat content than men and when it is hot, then they will be more, they will be more aligned to feeling the heat much more or suffering from heat waves more than men could do that because of our physiological changes. 

This is really what would say that as a woman, environmental changes really affect us in a big way. We also know that in Africa, men usually go to towns or far away places to look for work. And that means that women will remain at home with children to look after their households. So if there is going to be a disaster, these women are bound to stay home, they will not take an opportunity to run away because they must look after the children. 

They are the breadwinners because the men are away in towns where they are looking for employment and also income to bring to their households. So as a woman, there are so many things that will make them more affected by environmental changes than men and other people in society. And I think it's high time that we supported or countries supported women to be at the forefront to be actors in climate change to avert the crisis.

Additionally, women are relatively have high amount of body fat compared to men. And this means that women retain toxic chemicals. This is stored in fat deposits in their bodies for longer. Therefore, water and air pollution will affect women to a greater extent than men.

Additionally, women also go through rapid physiological changes such as pregnancy and menopause, and this will increase their vulnerability to health changes from the toxic chemicals. And other extreme effects of climatic changes to women in terms of pregnancy or health is the environmental temperatures bring breeding of mosquitoes in most communities in Africa. So we know malaria is a big killer or the greatest killer for pregnant women and the children under five. And so this is increased when we have more floods or when we go through dry spells and suddenly we have high amounts of rainfall. So both malaria, Zika virus and all other waterborne diseases are a big concern to us at the community because of climate change. 

Thank you, Mary, for highlighting some of the health challenges that women face as a result of climate change. Climate change can have profound effects on the mental health and well -being of young women and girls. Constant exposure to climate-related stresses and extreme weather events, displacement and uncertainty about the future can lead to increased levels of anxiety, depression and post -traumatic stress disorder, which is commonly known as PTSD. So in anxiety and stress, young women living in areas vulnerable to climate-related disasters can live in a state of anxiety and stress, fear of losing their homes, losing their livelihoods, or losing their loved ones due to climate impact. The other aspect of mental health that we young women or young people, are experiencing is trauma and post -traumatic stress disorders. So direct exposure to climate -related disasters, such as hurricanes, floods, wildfires, can result in traumatic experiences that have long lasting effects on mental health. Young women and girls may experience symptoms of PTSD, including flashbacks, nightmares, and also having avoidance behaviors.

On loss and grief, climate change induced events can lead to loss of homes, livelihoods, and even lives. Like a recent case where we had flooding and we lost over 40 people overnight. Just 40 people, a whole community was swiped away due to the ongoing floods that were happening in the country last month. So loss and grief and young women may struggle to cope with these losses, especially if they lose close family members and friends. Also, environmental anxiety. I don't know if you guys have heard of that term, but it does exist. Environmental anxiety, it's real and it's happening and it's being experienced by us, the young people. This is when you grow awareness of the existential threat posed by climate change and can lead to a feeling of helplessness, hopelessness, and equal anxiety among people. Because you are concerned about the future and in the process you lack, and also you are lacking an agency to address environmental challenges. These are some of the challenges that we, the young people, have been affected by the climate change on matters of mental health.

Mary and Shalene, you've both given us so much to think about and it's some of the issues are ones that people have no control over. So that environmental anxiety is something, a new term to me, but very well described. Thank you so much. So what can we do? I'm really, really interested. Mary kind of posed a little bit about women having power, and I'd really like to kind of go deeper into that. It's how can women, and Soroptimists specifically, be leaders in the sustainable change facing all these challenges? But what are women doing as leaders? 

At the international level, Soroptimist International sits at the United Nations Center here in Nairobi. And we know that Nairobi is the home of the UN environment program that deals with international policy on environment. So as the Soroptimist International representatives at the UNEP here in Nairobi, we are able to sit and follow discussions while the member states are discussing policy on international matters. 

Our role is to see and hear how the policy that they are legislating affects girls and women. For example, within the United Nations Environment Assembly, which is commonly known as UNEA, the last one was the sixth session that occurred early this year in February, and it was an in -person meeting. We had a very good opportunity to participate and be part of the themes and the clusters and all the resolutions that were being put on the table. And I want to tell you that in terms of climate crisis responses, we were able to look into certain areas that promote sustainable materialism in terms of what should each stakeholder do and what is the support that is required at the various levels. 

Because action is globally regionally and also at the national level before we come to the grassroots where the women are really and this is where the power needs to be shifted towards so that they can really bring change that is sustainable. So I personally with the other representatives are members of the Women Major Group, a very influential acknowledged UN interest group that follows matters to do with women and the environment.

But we also have other interest groups like children and youth major groups. And Shaleen is one of the representatives that also follow the UNEA or the United Nations Environment Assembly issues towards matters to do with children and youth. And she could be able to also articulate a role during the UNEA. Otherwise,
the discussions were really on pollution, biodiversity loss, and also climate crisis. And all these matters really affect women in a great way. So over to you, Shaleen, on youth and children interest major group on environment.

Thank you, Mary, very much for also highlighting again the triple planetary crisis that was the theme on UNEA 6, which is pollution, biodiversity loss and climate change. And for the first time ever in history, the young people were included very, the voices of the young people at the UNEA were very much had never been the United Nations Environment Assembly. For the first time we had a global youth environment assembly, which is GYEA, a global youth environment assembly, which was had before, actually it was so significant because it was had the weekend before the assembly began. 

And we were happy because you are following on the resolutions and we could see the input that we had worked day and night to put on, you know, Mary understand it can be a quiet process, a lobbying process. You give any inputs, you're sent back. It's usually a back and forth process. But step, the first step is we have a space. We are being included. We are being seen. We are being heard. Our voices were very much hard and very seen during the last United Nations Environment Assembly, the sixth session. 

And we had the first global youth environment assembly. Well, we did put, we gave it as it is. We only have one Earth. And we don't have a second Earth somewhere. Like if this Earth is gone, we have a backup plan that you're going to run to. 

So we did challenge from we challenged member states, we challenged corporations, businesses, everyone who was in United Nations Environment Assembly, the sixth session can test, even Mary here can attest that the young voices were deeply heard and were resonated during UNEA 6. So the first step is obviously to include young people in decision -making processes so that even when you come with these policies, it's easy for us to integrate them in our daily lives. And how do you do that? 

You have to include us in the first stage when you're drafting this policy, you have to include us so that we can be throughout, we can be with you throughout the process from drafting their policy to even implementation and being also oversight on member states on how are they incubating or are they implementing the resolutions that were agreed upon?

First step is we have been seen, we have been heard, and we have been included at the top level policy decision -making processes.

It just thrills me to know that the voice of the youth is being brought to the table. So women are in the room and youth are in the room. I know it was sort of interesting to me that youth is described as up to age 30. So I think it's important for people to have that contextual understanding that it's not necessarily children that we're talking about. We're talking about people residing on our planet that are up to the age of 30. Very, very good news on the heels of some really difficult news that you initially presented about particularly the environmental situation in Africa. How are Soroptimists creating change at a national and local level?

And just before we come to the national levels action for environmental conservation, I would want to add that our work at the United Nations is actually contributing to sustainable development goal number 13, which is climate change, you know, life on land and climate change and climate action.

And in this, we make sure that the objectives of becoming resilient and bringing education at the national level is really available so that groups and communities can become more resilient. We also make sure that we are aligned to planning, especially and management in terms of coping for.

What is not anticipated, for example, because these climate shocks occur anytime. So we really push for countries to plan and be plan for and help in managing shocks or these disasters when they are lied. So disaster risk management becomes a big policy matter for us in terms of pushing SDG 15, SDG 13, but also looking on its alignment to gender equality, which is sustainable goal number five. Family, that is what we hold on to as Soroptimist International at the UN here in Nairobi. So back to your question about the actions now at the national level and what us Soroptimists are doing at the national level.

I would want to say that regionally, the continent of Africa has actually taken climate change action quite seriously. And the first climate summit action was in Nairobi. It was held in Nairobi. And the many presidents that were present in that summit were able to commit to resolutions that they will go back and support national programs that is going to support women, youth and communities to be able to do their interventions, country specific, because what is working for Kenya, for example, is slightly different for what will be working in Mozambique or what will be working in Benin or in Senegal. So all these national policies and national programs, become relevant from the international scene. So in the climate summit that was held in Africa, in Kenya, I want to say that again, there was the first opportunity to have the first ever children led child climate summit in Nairobi. And we had one of our young champions, a teenager girl called Eliane Wanjiku, who really brought together over 17 children from different nations in Africa to really make a conversation and make a resolution to the president of the role of children supported by their families, that is the mothers, to really work together on climate change. So a lot is happening at the national level in terms of policy and actual programs.

And that of course now translates to the work that clubs in every country can be able now to align their Soroptimist actions to be able to address climate change. We have a big example of what happens locally. And recently here in Kenya, the club of Nairobi Central, Soroptimist International Nairobi Central club has brought a very good initiative that is dubbed greening our horizons, women taking the lead. But in this particular one, because this club is in Nairobi city, it took into the streets of Nairobi to beautify and green the road sides of Nairobi. So in partnership with the area communities in Kibra, which is the largest Islam in Nairobi and in Africa, the club was allocated roadsides to green and to plant trees and to maintain a healthy environment. 

So quickly the club partnered with women groups and youth groups for them to be educated on the importance of tree planting, but not just trees alone, fruit trees and vegetables. And this goes back to how they will be able to sustain themselves by taking care of the roadsides for the vegetables that they have planted, for the fruit trees that they have there. And in three years time, that part of roadside is actually a big forest. This action was initiated in April, 2021, three years down the line in February, 2024.

We walked into that forest during the United Nations Environment Assembly times with our president, the Soroptimist International President, Siew Yong. And she was very, very excited to be in a Soroptimist Friendship Fruits Park, which is on a roadside. And it is really nice to see the women there and the youth taking care of the environment.

So those are some of the actions that are happening in Kenya. And I know they are replicated in all other clubs in Africa and also in other towns in Kenya. I know the young clubs, like the one that Shaleen comes from, also have their ideas in doing campaigns and social campaigns. So she could speak to us about what the young clubs are doing in social campaigns for environment conservation.

Wonderfully said, Mary, as you have said, the way we keep on saying how all the women, let me just use that term, and I hope to be forgiven how all the women and younger women address challenges can be quite different given we are the millennial and Generation Z, Generation Z's era. So we have our own ways of addressing this giant climate change. So, I personally been in an E -club, that means we don't get to meet physically. We rarely meet physically and our engagements are usually virtual engagements where we meet and bond with youths from across the country. And the beauty of this is given that you're an E -club you can have someone from Mombasa that's very far from where I am. Those are thousands of kilometers away. Another person from, let me say, Marsabit, another person in Nairobi, another person in Kisumu. 

And in this process, we just hold educational webinars on how to protect the environment. We also do social media campaigns on reuse, recycle.  And the most recent one that we did was during the World Environment Day, where we had our president, Suyong, present. Mary was also present. And we brought together the whole region of Soroptimist International Federation Africa Federation. I would say I was very happy because we brought together youths, not only in Kenya, but across the region, to have an educational webinar on how to protect the environment as African women. 

Because how we protect the environment here using local knowledge, existing knowledge and forging partnerships with indigenous people. It's quite different from how climate conservation can be done maybe in the global north. So it's quite different. So as we engage more in educational webinars and when we hang out, when we meet up once in a while, like when we meet up for our meetings, we do cleanups, we do planting trees in a very unique way. 

We have a campaign, we have things called seed balls. Instead of planting a tree, you plant a seed ball. It's usually very tiny. I would encourage everyone to do this if they can. Or when you visit Kenya, I think it's the only place that it's been done. It's a ball and you just be throwing balls all over and they just sprout because of, it's just our own indigenous way of addressing the challenge. 

Another way I would say, apart from environmental education, I have seen clubs and SI Kenya, that's the Rukmiz International Kenya Network, having webinars on teaching women on waste reduction, how to reduce waste at home, like how to reduce waste from a personal level, because the initiative has to start with you before we go to the community, it always has to start at home. Charity always begins at home. And also having clean water, access to clean water as well. So those are just some of the ways in which we are trying to address this triple planetary crisis done.

You've given us so much food for thought and we're kind of coming to the end. We need to wrap up just really a simple response. Why is it so important that women and girls become leaders?

Yes, women need to be at the forefront. I say that and I will say it again. You know, naturally, women are naturals. They care, they protect and they are able to, you know they're very patient and they can be able to impart knowledge in a very unique way. So as much as we want to build capacity of communities, the starting point with us is to get this information and awareness to women. We need to equip them with not only the skills, but also the resources that comes with actions that they need to do. 

They will be able to actually pass on their TALCID knowledge from themselves to their children and to their grandchildren. Orally, they speak about things that they have done in the past, fruits that were quite useful that they cannot see these days. They spar and they are able to encourage the children to plant and to protect the vineyards or the fruits that they are planting. So all this goes to really show why women voices must be on the table, not to be included, but to be part of the decision making. 

So our policies really must strengthen that and must really know and look at the women as the solutions to climate change as opposed to just the victims or those that are affected adversely by these changes. I would want to also know that the young people have our role and young women, Shalee, would you be able to articulate that as well.

And I would say it's very paramount for young people to be included and to be leaders and to be leaders when it comes to addressing climate change because of the intersectionality of the vulnerabilities.

The intersectionality of social, economic, and gender inequalities, given that climate change affects us disproportionately, like the climate change, we say climate change is not gender neutral. Young women understand the intersectionality of climate change when it comes to social, economic, and even gender inequalities.

Because we carry the burden, we are the people who are carrying the burden when it comes to education, facing barriers in education, access to education and access to economic activities. By empowering young women, just like ESA is doing, having a young woman like me being a United Nations representative, it's a good example and we are leading, we are working the talk of including young people at decision -making level. 

So by empowering young women to lead climate action, we are addressing these intersectionalities and ensuring that their voices are heard in decision making processes. And overall, empowering young women to become leaders in climate change is essential in fostering innovation, promoting also inclusivity and driving meaningful progress towards a more sustainable and equitable future for all. 

And also something I would like to mention is that having young women on board as well when addressing climate change, it brings across the issue of intergenerational knowledge sharing. I will bring my perspective as a young person and Mary will bring her perspective as an older woman in an equitable way. It was so much fun being on this podcast. 

Mary and Shaleen, you've given us so much to think about and things to think about as far as our equal responsibility as citizens of the planet and women and youth that we all can take time and we can take time to do our part.

So just a little conclusion that I felt was that it's so, so important that women and girls are knowledgeable about climate and they're at increased risk of climate crisis. It's so important that we are part of that civil society and we're partners in
both locally and globally and at the UN for being part of the solutions and on the table, not just at the table. 

And that there is a power in community engagement that includes all parties, the older women, the younger women, and the youth and the whole community in achieving environmental goals, leaving much richer in understanding today about both what the problems are, but also some of the solutions that you've identified. And it's been a wonderful time here today. Thank you all for listening to SI Voices. Please follow us on social media. Search for Soroptimist Global.

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