Climate Action Figures
A safe place for youth to share steps they are taking to mitigate climate change.
Climate Action Figures
Season 2, Episode 13: Darren
This episode of Climate Action Figures features Darren, a young activist from Uganda, who shares her experiences at COP29 in Baku, the challenges faced by delegates from the Global South, and her grassroots work with Phoenix Student Foundation to tackle climate change and promote children's rights. Also, young listener Camille from Edmonton shares a QuickFix on carpooling for soccer practice.
00:00 Introduction to Climate Action Figures
00:32 QuickFix: Camille's Carpooling Solution
01:11 Darren's Experience at COP 29
02:10 Challenges Faced by Young Delegates
05:24 Role of NGOs in Climate Action
10:12 Phoenix Student Foundation: Darren's Initiative
12:45 Personal Climate Actions and Motivations
14:54 Hope and Community in Climate Action
16:48 Conclusion and Farewell
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My name is Dar Nato. From Kampala, Uganda. You're tuned in to climate Action Figures with John.
John (2):Hello and welcome to this week's edition of Climate Action Figures. My name is John Whidden, and this week on the show, you get to meet Darren, who was recently in Baku at COP29, and she will tell us all about that. For this week's QuickFix, we have a first on the program. A young listener from Edmonton named Camille sent her QuickFix in to us via video. How exciting is that? Well, we're always in need of QuickFixes. So if you are inspired by what you're about to hear from Camille, take a quick video or an audio recording, or just write an email or a social media message if you prefer. here's Camille.
Hi, my name is Camille. I play for Scottish United in Edmonton. My QuickFix is that I carpool with my soccer teammate, Claire, when we go to soccer practice.
John (2):Well, welcome Darren. What do you say to Camille about that QuickFix?
Darren:I think, Camille is a very smart young girl, I think she's an environmentalist in the making, so keep doing what you're doing!
John (2):Now you're joining us from Kampala, Uganda, and I think you introduced the whole program here in a different language. What language was that?
Darren:That's Luganda, that is my, uh, mother language, my local language. Uganda is, a country compromised of 52 tribes. That means that different people speak different languages. So I speak Luganda.
John (2):Well, thanks for teaching us a little bit in Luganda. Now you, Darren, were recently at COP 29 in Baku. What was that experience like for you?
Darren:I think COP came with very many emotions, I wouldn't say it was really a, Disappointment as most of us feel like it was, but I think it was also a great space to see, very many people come together to say solidarity amongst communities. And I think for me that grounded me around COP
John (2):We've heard from other young delegates that they did have a sense of disappointment at the things that didn't get accomplished. do you feel that there were some things accomplished aside from you, you mentioned gathering together with like minded people, but what else was accomplished there?
Darren:I think to be very honest, not so much was accomplished at this COP, because I think going into there, as someone that comes from a developing country, we did not go into, COP 29 again to have. Ourselves locked out of the negotiation rooms to have ourselves receive texts very, very late in the night, sometimes very early in the morning, sometimes even pushing to, to the next days without really clear decisions and negotiations. So, I think coming out of COP with with whatever results we came out with, with a 300 billion, I think it's not a reason for me to say it was a good COP, so it, it, it did not really deliver as to my expectations as someone who also works very heavily on, on climate finance
John (2):Right. And we've heard from, Several other young people that they were locked out. The meetings were delayed, they were shortened. It was very difficult. What, what do you think were the reasons for that happening?
Darren:I mean, I mean, John, this isn't the first time that this is happening, so we feel like this is like a pattern that is continuing to, to happen. I was actually thinking about this, coming to this conversation, that why are we constantly left out of the negotiation rooms? Why are we constantly discussed about when we are not in those rooms, when they talk about the future, I dunno who they talk about in that future, when we are not present in those rooms. But I think this comes also as a way to also frustrate young people to to make us tired and want to give up. Because if you see how the negotiations were happening at this COP sometimes at 3:00 AM at 4:00 AM negotiations could still be going on. How do you want a young person who has been running around all day, talking to partners, building community, and just trying to be all over talking about their work, to stay around until 3am When you had like really a lot of time to prepare and organize so that you work out things in the right time. So I think this has been happening very much and also because young people are usually accepted into those spaces as observers. And you know what it means to be an observer at COP. That means You really have limited entrance or limited, capacity to really be in certain spaces. So that means as I was an observer, for example, I was an observer and I wanted to enter certain rooms. I couldn't go there because I'm an observer. I'm literally looked at someone that is not trying to, support these, these conversations, but disrupting whatever you guys are trying to talk about. So that is also a hindrance, but also understand that Not very many governments have come out to support young people. That's why young people usually get this kind of support from non government organizations, which of course are observers by default. So if a non government organization is, is, is, is supporting them, that means I'm going to come as, as a, as an observer and, you should have more privileges to, to really know what's happening inside those rooms. So I think that's the issue and it's just recurring.
John (2):Right. You mentioned non governmental organizations or NGOs, which are the ones that you are seeing really affecting change, which ones are very exciting?
Darren:That's a very complex question because I think very interesting and very complex because as someone who also is building a grassroots organization. I would say every action that we do in our smallest capacities is really big, but also to really answer you is there are some international organizations that have stepped out to really support especially Global South activists. Going into the scope of supported by let's say 350, I am with the 350 fellowship and also with Greenpeace UK. So then, so those are like organizations are very many more that I've not really worked with directly Oxfam and, and very many other organizations that are really standing in solidarity I think it's good to recognize that this work does not go around in silos, and it's good to pieces of work we do together and be happy that together we are doing something and we are supporting each other throughout. I think also the other one that I think I really didn't mention is roots. Roots is really an organization that is working to build community and, capacitating young people with the knowledge and tools they need to demand justice and hold each other as a global south community. So shout out to Roots people as well. Yeah.
John (2):We will put links to all of those organizations in the show notes so that if you want to support them or look into what they do, you can you can easily access those now, when we think about COP 29, Darren we've, we've heard from a young delegate from Bangladesh who said we should just stop doing it, do next year's and then forget it because it's too cumbersome. Do you think there's still some value in COP 29 or should we abandon that whole process?
Darren:Thank you. Thank you, John, for, for this question. Honestly, we are not sure if you don't need cop, because without cop there's no other platform where countries like mine are going to come and be on the same table with someone from the global North. We need to have more of these platforms, especially for communities like mine, especially for negotiators that come from from developing countries like mine, who are never going to have a platform unless it's somewhere around COP.
John (2):Right. Now, you mentioned one of the benefits was Global North meets Global South in person. You, we're sort of doing that here right now, I guess, aren't we? I I wonder if you have a message for the Global North. Hi, Global North. Hi, Global South+
Darren:Hi Global North.
John (2):Do Do you have a message for the Global North?
Darren:Yeah, I think I always would have a message for Global North as someone that comes from the Global South. And works with communities, I've worked with grassroots communities, with children, with youth for about nine to ten years now, and I can tell you that the impacts of climate change, the systematic issues that these communities are facing a huge part of them are really having to do with, with, with what you've tried to make them go through. So, it's only fair that you step up, it's only fair that you collaborate, it's only fair that you stand in solidarity with them as they navigate Th these, these challenges. So that's my message to you, global North.
John (2):Tell us how you and other Ugandans have been affected by climate change.
Darren:I grew up in a community that experience with these weather patterns that I didn't know I, I didn't really pay attention to as a child. I grew up in a, in a household where we depended so much on farming. I was raised by a foster woman as my mother. But I never went to the gardens to farm with my cousins, but I think I remember very much how they would come back home with nothing. And I think we don't really understand these things and been like directly affected by it for very many years. I just don't need to know it was climate change that you could plant and you're not very expectant of how your harvest is going to look like because you really, you're not sure about the weather. Right now it's acting like it's winter, but the next day it The sun would be out like it has never been cold in this country. So those changing weather patterns can really frustrated me and can make you not really sure of If I should plant or what my family is going to eat the next month because you're not sure how the weather is going to be. So I think that was the turning point for me and when climate change came out as one of the issues that intersected with all of the organizing that I was doing at the time, I think it became clear to me that I needed to do something as someone that has been an indirect victim without actually knowing that it was climate change.
John (2):In that sense of feeling you had been affected by it, that has motivated you to create a grassroots organization in Uganda. Could you tell us a little bit about that?
Darren:Yes, I'm always happy to talk about Phoenix. So my organization is called Phoenix Student Foundation. I think people ask me, why did you choose Phoenix? What does Phoenix mean? But I don't know if, John, you've heard about a phoenix bird. I read about it in, in Maya Angelou's poem Still I Rise and I was like, what is a phoenix? What is this that burns and then comes back to life. What do you mean? And so going back into my childhood and how my life has been, how was, was raised By foster parents having my, parents move from Rwanda to Uganda because of the genocide and those very many things that, that, that, the issues that I experienced as a child and all the resilience that I had this relates so much to being a phoenix because you could actually burn so much. And you still rise, you still rise with your communities, you still rise with very many children that are going through the same things that you've experienced as a child. So I came up with Phoenix Student Foundation just to really Support Children that are, experiencing these issues with no voice to support them, without maybe knowing they're going through them. And the Phoenix Children Foundation has been in existence for the past five years and our mission is really to just advance child rights in Uganda. a child needs to know that climate change is happening and how it's their right to know that there's a crisis like this and how can they take action so that they can be able to preserve it for their future, maybe also live, a happy childhood or a useful life they should have a know in how their rights and they should be protected and the support system that they need to go through that. So we work with, with youth we, we understand that this work is mainly for children, and we're working in areas, four thematic areas. I think we work in climate change, we are very heavy in climate change and we have projects that we've been doing around, around environmental education really equipping children and youth with tools they need to take proactive climate action. We break down the climate language into, concepts that they understand, and we just have fun doing this work, health and climate have been very heavy conversations around this COP and last year in Dubai. are working at the intersection of child health and climate and seeing how these issues affect children and how can we best support them. And we also have education, I mean. An educated child is a child that is going to take on the world, so we believe in that. We believe in quality education,
John (2):Well, that sounds like amazing work and congratulations on the successes you've already felt from the things you've done. These are all very big things you're doing. Have you picked a smaller climate action to share with us today?
Darren:Yes I think a small thing I love to do five years ago. I went vegetarian and I feel like that is my smallest way of really contributing to plant based and I'm hoping to go vegan very soon, so yay!
John (2):That's wonderful. Tell us what motivated that. What's the main, I mean, there are many reasons why people are vegetarians and vegans. What's your main reason?
Darren:Okay, okay, I think the most innocent reason why I went vegetarian is there's a time in my home, I think we are going to slaughter an animal to be feasted. And I remember feeling so much pain. I saw it's blood come out. I'm like, no, you don't have to do this. Like, we don't need to really kill animals for us to eat them. That hurt me so much. I'm like, it shouldn't have lived. It shouldn't maybe have had a more longer life if, if we were not really trying to, to make it our next meal. So that really got close to my heart. And then I said, if there's anything I would do, I wouldn't be the one person that participates in this. also because of the genocide that happened in Rwanda very many years ago. So I remember My, my foster mum saying that our grandmother, our grandfather actually said, said to my, my father and my, aunties that you do not make my grandchildren Eat fish. Because when the genocide happened, our people were thrown in water, in lakes. and so each time people from Rwanda ate fish, they felt like they were eating someone. They were eating a relative that is close to them. So they, they turned down from, from eating anything that, that is like fish. So as a child, I've not eaten fish. I didn't eat fish, I was not exposed, I was exposed to meat but because also I had that in my head that, oh my god, we have people that died into this, were thrown into water and each time someone eats fish, you're literally eating your relative ah,
John (2):Darren, tell us what gives you hope these days.
Darren:that's a very great question, John. It's very hard to remain hopeful these days. Especially with so much that is happening in the world, But I think one thing that gives me hope is community. I am a community builder, and I've seen what it means. At COP29, I was in the People's Plenary. I think that was the most, the Productive Prenaries that we have at COP so far, at any COPs. And I went into that because, you know, because I feel like that is where my people are. I feel like that is where we can hold each other. That's where we can brainstorm together. That's where we can cry. That's where we can hug. That's where we can really be together and, and embrace each other as a community and give each other hope. I mean, if you're in silos, you're literally, it's very hard to be, to operate in silos when you're doing this work. It's very easy to, Operate in isolation and feel like you have to take on all the weight of the world. You have to carry everything. But I think community gives me hope knowing that when we are together, when we we come together, we're going to win very many things. When the floods have, when this recent floods that happened in in Eastern Spain, There's nothing that moved me, like seeing all those volunteers that came from wherever they came, to support with the cleaning, to support with holding that community that was affected. When Global North fails us at any point, at any stages, that if they delay climate action, the Global South is going to win everything if we hold each other as a community, and we don't need to really do it as Global South alone. We need to stand as a global community and hold each other in solidarity. I think that is the only hope we can give each other, that we have each other.
John (2):So many wonderful messages from you today you are young, but you have amazing ideas. You truly are a community builder, and we are so happy that you shared some of your time with us today. And now we can let you go to bed, finally.
Darren:Thank you, John. Thank you very much, Climate Action Figures, for having me and having this conversation with me.
John (2):Thank you so much for joining us today, dear listener, and we will be back again next week to hear from yet another delegate from COP 29, another climate action figure. Until then,
Darren:Go, figures!