The lower slopes of Mount Cameroon, home to 100-200 elephants and several small villages, are suffering from inter-species clashes. Over the years, there have been increased human-elephant conflict due to habitat fragmentation in the communities surrounding this area. According to the residents of Bakingilli village, elephants have destroyed over 250 banana, plantain, corn, and bean plantations. The elephant communities face threats from the human inhabitants of their lands, too.
With support from the Fellowship Grant Program, Fanny, Shey, and Bekoume will work with community leaders to train and provide ongoing support to local residents on cassava cultivation and processing. Through their project, they aim to promote harmony between the elephant and human communities of Mount Cameroon, and improve the livelihood of Bakingilli households by providing an additional source of income through the cultivation, processing, and marketing of cassava products.
The Bay Area Youth Climate Summit (BAYCS) amplifies the much-needed voices of youth in the climate movement. Their annual climate summits have brought together tens of organizations and hundreds of youth for a day of climate solutions, resilience, and community. The BAYCS team, composed of 25 Bay Area youth from 15 schools, has hosted four summits and organized 70+ monthly workshops in partnership with local environmental justice organizations. Workshop topics have covered everything from coral bleaching to how housing intersects with environmental justice to air quality equity. Since BAYCS’ inception in 2020, the team has mobilized over 3,500+ youth, garnering the attention of the UN, ABC News, and more!
With support from the Fellowship Grant Program, BAYCS will continue to create free workshops integrating more interactive elements, like live music! As mentors, the Future Blue Youth Council will help brainstorm and execute ideas for their workshops, expand their social media presence, and create a plan for the longevity of the organization. Through this support, BAYCS aims to expand their reach, prompting even more Bay Area youth to take collective action in the spheres of policy, social justice, and education.
Youth Environmental Movement (YEM) is an environmental network of national and international organizations, schools, and institutions that work together to promote events and activities regarding the circular economy, conservation of biodiversity, and environmental education. Its flagship events are the Ecoshoot, an international environmental photography contest, and the Eco-Marathon, a road race that promotes recycling.
The Future Blue Youth Council is excited to work with YEM to promote its early development by supporting fundraising efforts, designing a social media communications plan, assisting in organizational networking, and strengthening student outreach to achieve organizational goals.
Siblings Zara and Ashton Hawkins launched Hidden Plastic in 2020 to raise awareness of the plastic pollution crisis. They create and share educational videos through Hidden Plastic’s social media platforms on YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram.
With the support of the Fellowship Grant Program, Zara and Ashton will set up a dedicated Hidden Plastic Studios, which will enable the launch of their “Did You Know?” series of short videos on plastic pollution. A youth-led news channel will follow later this year and will include interviews and creative videos about the problems of and solutions to plastic pollution. Bow Seat will help provide content for this news channel and connect Zara and Ashton to environmental youth leaders.
Every day, women surrounding the Chisinga Forest spend time procuring firewood to run their homes and feed their families. In search for an alternative to the exploitative practices of deforestation, Maria decided to create a new form of energy using what the villages already had in stock. Using waste paper, sawdust, agricultural waste, groundnut shells, rice husks, and maise stalks, Maria trains women and other community members in the surrounding villages to create briquettes to be used with energy-efficient cooking stoves.
In addition, Maria hosts festivals to integrate briquette-making into community culture. She also has created a cohort of climate ambassadors who visit classrooms to introduce the concept of climate change to students, who are trained to create their own stoves, become climate advocates, and join Maria in her mission to give her community the tools to make sustainable decisions. With the support of the Fellowship Grant Program, Maria will expand her efforts to more villages outside the Chisinga Forest, providing climate education to 300 households!
TeamUpcyclers is undertaking a project to upcycle textile waste into eco-friendly and affordable reusable sanitary pads for girls and women in rural communities in Nigeria. Grace and her siblings developed this low-cost solution to combat inadequate waste management within the textile industry and to increase menstrual health awareness and sanitary product accessibility within their community. Her team is also committed to expanding climate education in schools and teaching students how to upcycle textile waste into reusable sanitary pads.
The Future Blue Youth Council is excited to work with TeamUpcyclers to expand the reach of their project, educating more students about climate change and making sanitary pads more accessible. Grace and her team and the FBYC will be collaborating to develop a comprehensive climate curriculum and establish a professional digital presence to reach a wider audience.
Keren-happuch is drilling a borehole to alleviate the issue of water scarcity in the Wusasa community. The community has historically struggled with obtaining water, having to draw water from wells (only accessible to households with them) or traveling miles to gain access to water due to the nature of the area’s climate.
With support from the Fellowship Grant Program, Keren-happuch will be able to construct this borehole for the Wusasa community to gain access to an important water source. In addition, the grant will support Keren-happuch’s efforts to educate the children of her community about climate change and its effects on the environment through the arts and other means. Through Keren-happuch’s work, she hopes to reduce the risk of unhygienic water, allow for a water source to remain nearby the community, and spread awareness of climate change and its affects on water scarcity.
Food insecurity is a prevalent issue in Mackenzie, Claire, and Grace’s hometown. To address this problem, they acquired a deforested lot that they will turn into the Pontiac Food Forest, a community garden that helps make fresh food available to all. The trio also plan to incorporate a physical climate “classroom” in the garden, where the community can learn about topics like greenhouse gases, energy, resources, and pollinators. Through their project, Mackenzie, Claire, and Grace aim to emphasize the importance of two interconnected issues: food insecurity and climate change.
With support from the Fellowship Grant Program, the Pontiac Food Forest is able to purchase supplies, including seeds, tools, a tool shed, gardening equipment, and presentation materials. As mentors, the Future Blue Youth Council will help brainstorm and execute ideas for the climate classroom, expand the project’s social media presence, recruit for summer camp activities, and create a plan for the longevity of the project.
In his quest to break cultural taboos, Bishal and his team founded Let’s Talk About Menstruation: Normalizing Conversations About Periods in Nepal (LTAM) to advocate for menstrual health. The newly created project will host local workshops that promote conversation around menstrual hygiene, involving an environmentally focused curriculum with creation and distribution of sustainable period products.
With support from the Fellowship Grant Program, LTAM will establish their organization’s first social media presence, design exciting workshop structures, and reach out to potential facilitators. The Future Blue Youth Council can’t wait to help make an impact on female health in the Nepali community!
Read more about Let’s Talk About Menstruation.
Lily and Maggie established Net Love to recycle and repurpose tennis balls, which end up in landfills every year and contribute to tons of methane-producing non-compostable waste. The Future Blue Youth Council is excited to work with Lily and Maggie to expand their recycling and repurposing efforts towards their goal of recycling 2,000,000 tennis balls.