Hali Hewa Podcast

Happy New Week!  

Long time no episode. 

Welcome to the fourth episode of the COP27 Mini Series for Hali Hewa Podcast with your host Abigael Kima.

Throughout COP27, we will be doing a mini-series interviewing people from across the globe on issues that matter to them as the negotiations progress.  In this episode, we had an interesting conversation with Jesse Chemorey  who is an Energy Technology finalists at Kenyatta University School of Engineering and Technology. Outside his professional life, he enjoys playing and creating music, also plays instruments like saxophone and guitar.  

He shares with us why this work is important to him and how he uses his talent to create awareness on the climate crisis to transform communities and build climate literacy.  

Enjoy this melodious episode!  

Find him on Instagram : https://instagram.com/jesse_david_j?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Welcome to the third episode of the COP27 Mini Series for Hali Hewa Podcast with your host Abigael Kima. 

Throughout COP27, we will be doing a mini-series interviewing people from across the globe on issues that matter to them as the negotiations progress.  

Today, we are joined by an amazing guest. 

Helina Teklu is an architect, graphic designer, environmental activist and works on women empowerment. She is currently the CEO/Co-Founder of Seed Balls Ethiopia's seed ball manufacturer that provides affordable, fast growing, lightweight and easily to make seed balls that will help increase farmer’s productivity and reforest the deforested parts of Ethiopia and through time, Africa. She is also Earth Champion for Climate Change, Climate Reality Leader, Blogger for Sunsilk Ethiopia.

In this episode, she talks passionately about her project - Seed Balls Ethiopia and how they are using this to increase forest cover in areas that are difficult  to access and how farmers are also benefiting from this. She shares her frustration on the absence of African based research done by Africans here at COP on agriculture because most African countries have agriculture as the backbone of their economies.

She signs off the show by calling for support to amplify this work across Africa.

Enjoy the show!

Welcome to the second episode of the COP27 Mini Series for Hali Hewa Podcast with your host Abigael Kima. 

Throughout COP27, we will be doing a mini-series interviewing people from across the globe on issues that matter to them as the negotiations progress.  

Today, we are joined by an amazing guest.

Jodahi is a Youth and Environmental Activator from Ethiopia. He is an Applied Biologist and Environmental and Sustainable Development Specialist through his education. He is the founder and Marketing and Sales Director Farmboo Ethiopia, with his partners, a bamboo based pots and vertical farming shelves. He is also the Director for Enfluencers community in Ethiopia which works on environmental awareness creation and capacity building.

In this episode, he speaks about "e-nfluencing" ; a term that he uses to describe inspiration to support and contribute to the environment. He shares how his work was inspired by his mum at a young age. He also shares his experience at COP23 and how different it is now for him at COP27 and his experience working with communities after COP23 because he felt it was important to build something at home before coming to another COP.

He signs off by sharing 2 things that would make this COP a successful COP. 

Enjoy the show! 

Check out his work on the links below: 

Website : http://www.enfluencers.net/ 

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/farmboo_eth/ 

https://www.instagram.com/jodaenfluence/

https://www.instagram.com/enfluencersnet/

Welcome to the first episode of the COP27 Mini Series for Hali Hewa Podcast with your host Abigael Kima. 

Throughout COP27, we will be doing a mini-series interviewing people from across the globe on issues that matter to them as the negotiations progress. 

Today, we are joined by an amazing guest.

Patricia Kombo is a youth climate activist from Kenya. She is best known for her tree planting initiatives as part of her nonprofit PaTree Initiative. The initiative has planted over 10,000 trees as of 2020.For this work, Kombo has been named a United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification Land Hero.

In this episode, she speaks passionately about land and sheds light on the relation between land, the climate crisis and biodiversity loss. 

She signs off by sharing 2 things that would make this COP a successful COP.

Enjoy the show!

Check out her work 

Twitter: 

https://twitter.com/PaTreeInitiati1?s=20&t=Ewd24XxukSXJ8aYBnjlbJQ

https://twitter.com/patriciakombo?s=20&t=Ewd24XxukSXJ8aYBnjlbJQ

Welcome to the seventh episode of the Hali Hewa Podcast.

‘Hali Hewa’ is a Swahili term for ‘climate ' and this podcast series is hosted and produced by Kenyan climate activist, Abigael Kima.

COP27 is finally here. In the lead up to COP27, Abigael has interviewed African climate change experts and activists on the issues that matter most to them. Guests sign off each episode by sharing what they feel are their expectations for COP27.

Our guests today are Eric Njuguna, Eva-Peace Mukayiranga, Mamadou Sylla and Sam Okorie

Eva Peace Mukayiranga

An environmentalist and climate finance negotiator in the UNFCCC, Eva works to advance the needs and priorities of vulnerable countries in terms of climate finance and loss and damage within the international/National fora. In addition, she focuses on scaling up climate action and education on the ground toward a transition to a green economy within the Local NGO_The Green Protector. Eva is the co-founder/Training Working Group coordinator of the Loss and Damage youth Coalition

Mamadou Sylla

An environmental activist from Senegal and a member of ASAN, a non-government organization working on the protection of nature and the promotion of sustainable tourism. Founding member and President of Naturefriends UGB in 2019, the local branch of ASAN in Gaston Berger University, He is currently serving as an advocacy coordinator for the Loss and Damage Youth Coalition.

Eric Njuguna

Organizer for Friday for Future Kenya, Consultant at UNICEF, and Director of International affairs at Kenya Environmental Action Network.

Samuel Chijioke

He is the founder of the Youth For Today Initiative and leads the POP Nigeria Initiative (on Climate Education).

In this episode, the young environmental advocates take us through what loss and damage is and the amazing work they are doing at the Loss and Damage Youth Coalition. They also share their personal experiences fighting for climate justice and why this work is important to them.

They sign off the show by sharing their COP27 strategy that begins today and their demands for Loss and Damage.

Enjoy the Show!

Find out more about their work on:

https://ldyouth.org/

Welcome to the sixth episode of the Hali Hewa Podcast.

‘Hali Hewa’ is a Swahili term for ‘climate ' and this podcast series is hosted and produced by Kenyan climate activist, Abigael Kima.

In the lead up to the COP27 international climate negotiations, which are taking place in a few days’ time, Abigael interviews African climate change experts and activists on the issues that matter most to them. Guests sign off each episode by sharing what they feel are their expectations for COP27.

Our guests today are Ina-Maria Shikongo and Tzeporah Berman.

Ina-Maria Shikongo from Namibia is an artist, fashion designer, activist — and celebrates the power of being an African woman every day. Vowing to stop planetary disaster, she has rallied humans from across the world to stop a Canadian company from drilling for fossil fuels in her country, Namibia. The Okavango Delta is home to some of Africa’s most ancient communities, and the largest surviving elephant herd. Canadian oil & gas company, ReconAfrica, has already begun exploratory drilling in the region.

Tzeporah Berman is a Canadian environment activist campaigner and writer. She has been designing environmental campaigns and working on environmental policy in Canada and beyond for over thirty years. She is currently the International Program Director at Stand.earth and the Chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative. She is the Co-Founder of the Global Gas & Oil Network, the former Co-Director of Greenpeace International's Global Climate and Energy Program, and the Co-Founder of ForestEthics (now Stand.earth). In 2019, she received the Climate Breakthrough Project Award which aims to drive breakthrough global strategies on climate change, and in 2021 she gave a widely-viewed TED Talk presenting the case for a global treaty to phase out fossil fuels.

In this episode, Ina-Maria and Tzeporah both speak to their individual experiences as frontline environmental and climate defenders. They share their views about what fossil fuel development and expansion implies for countries across the African continent, and Ina-Maria tells us about a new oil well in the Okavango Delta (a UNESCO world heritage site) that is threatening an entire ecosystem.

The conversation is rich and wide-ranging, unpacking concepts like petro-colonialism, and explaining why so many people believe so strongly that projects like the controversial East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) should not be a part of Africa's energy development.

Tzeporah tells us about the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty campaign and why African leaders, organizations and individuals might want to support the initiative. And she helps us to join the dots between Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine , the rush to develop gas in Africa and the new civil society campaign “Dont Gas Africa”.

Ina-Maria and Tzeporah sign off the show by sharing what they want the upcoming COP27 climate conference in Egypt to deliver.

Enjoy the show!

Links:

DON`T GAS AFRICA Campaign  - https://dont-gas-africa.org/

Article co-authored by Ina-Maria and Tzeporah -  Fossil Fuel Extraction Threatens Africa’s Remaining Elephants (Independent Media Institute)

Welcome to the fifth episode of the Hali Hewa Podcast.

‘Hali Hewa’ is a Swahili term for ‘climate ' and this podcast series is hosted and produced by Kenyan climate activist, Abigael Kima.

In the lead up to the COP27 international climate negotiations, which are now just a month away, Abigael interviews African climate change experts and activists on the issues that matter most to them. Guests sign off each episode by sharing what they feel the COP27 conference must deliver on.

Our guest today is Sofanit Mesfin. Sofanit is a gender specialist working as the Regional Gender and Social Inclusion Coordinator at Ripple Effect, formerly known as ‘Send A Cow’. Ripple Effect works with smallholder farmers to equip them with knowledge and skills enabling them to improve their livelihoods and thrive. Farmers working alongside Ripple Effect learn more, grow more and sell more. They can feed their families nutritious food, and by having a surplus to sell can invest in their farms, send their children to school and build sustainable agri-businesses.

In this episode, Sofanit takes us through her journey working with women farmers in different African countries to deliver training programs that help them adapt to a changing climate. She explains how and why women and children are disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change, and what Ripple Effect is doing to ease the burden on women, children and their households. Sofanit also explains how other stakeholders can come on board to support this kind of work, ensuring that more and more communities get support to build resilience and secure a healthy future for themselves and their children.

Sofanit signs off the show by sharing what she wants the upcoming COP27 climate conference in Egypt to deliver in November.

Enjoy the show!

Learn more about Ripple Effect

Linked in: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rippleeffectngo/mycompany/

Facebook :https://en-gb.facebook.com/sendacow/

You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/user/sendacow/videos https://twitter.com/RippleEffectNGO

Website:  http://www.rippleeffect.org/

[Note: I recently had the privilege to visit women farmers in Busia and Bungoma in the Western Region of Kenya. I learned a lot from them about methods to improve food production, and how these practices allowed them to better their lives and that of their families. Follow the Hali Hewa Podcast on social media to see these interviews]

[Editor's Note: We experienced connectivity issues between minute 5 and 6 and some parts are incoherent. Kindly bare with us. There is also a bit of background noise that could be cleaned out during post production.]

About this episode

Welcome to the fourth episode of the Hali Hewa Podcast.

‘Hali Hewa’ is a Swahili term for ‘climate ' and this podcast series is hosted and produced by Kenyan climate change activist, Abigael Kima.

Every month in the lead up to COP27, Abigael will be interviewing African climate change experts on the issues that matter to them most and inviting them to share what they feel the next international climate conference must deliver on.

Our guest today is Vanessa Nakate. Vanessa is one of the most well-known young climate activists from Uganda. She is the founder of Youth for Future Africa, the Africa-based Rise Up Movement and One Million Activists Stories. She also runs The Vash Green Schools Project, a renewable energy initiative, which aims to transition schools in Uganda to solar energy and install eco-friendly stoves in these schools among many other things on environmental conservation and protection. She recently received the prestigious Elisabeth Haub Award for Environmental Law and Diplomacy  in recognition of her citizen diplomacy in bringing the voice of her generation to global environmental campaigns and for her inspiring climate activism in Uganda and beyond.

In this episode, Vanessa takes us through her journey as an activist and shares what has inspired the impactful work she has been doing over the last several years. She tells us about an initiative she founded called the Vash Green Schools project, which helps schools in Uganda transition to solar energy and clean cooking stoves. One of the key issues that Vanessa campaigns on at the international level and in connection with the international climate change negotiations is “Loss and Damage”. Vanessa explains what Loss and Damage means as a concept, and why it is a critical issue for Africa in the context of upcoming COP27 climate negotiations. Vanessa also shares her personal reaction to the recent devastating flash floods that took place in Uganda, which claimed lives and left thousands of people displaced and with no access to clean water.

Vanessa signs off the show by sharing what she wants the upcoming COP27 climate conference in Egypt to deliver in November.

Enjoy the show!

[Editor's Note: At 00:23:47; Cindy refers to a climate finance promise of $ 100 Billion to indigenous people. To clarify, and for the avoidance of doubt, the sum that was promised to indigenous peoples at COP26 in Glasgow is $1.7 Billion made by a coalition of governments and stakeholders across public and private finance over the next four years towards Indigenous Peoples and Local Community (IPLC)]

Welcome to the third episode of the Hali Hewa Podcast.

‘Hali Hewa’ is a Swahili term for ‘climate ' and this podcast series is hosted and produced by Kenyan climate change activist, Abigael Kima.

Every month in the lead up to COP27, Abigael will be interviewing African climate change experts on the issues that matter to them most and inviting them to share what they feel the next international climate conference must deliver on.

We are joined today by a very special guest from one of Kenya`s indigenous communities.

Cindy Kobei is a feminist and human rights activist, who is a member of the Ogiek indigenous community of the Mau Forest in Kenya. Cindy has a background in law and indigenous peoples’ rights. She is a recent law graduate from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology and was a 2020 participant at the Global Leadership School for Indigenous Women by International Indigenous Women's Forum ( FIMI). She is currently pursuing a postgraduate in Law at Kenya School of Law to become an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya. She is also the Chair of the Tirap Youth Trust (Tirap means “safe haven”) formally known as Ogiek Youth Council where she has been actively promoting the rights of indigenous peoples, youth and girls in Kenya.

In this episode, Cindy takes us through her experience as an indigenous person growing up in Mau Forest: what it was like and what has changed now in the wake of land rights issues and the climate crisis. She speaks about her work at the Tirap Youth Trust, which focuses on capacity building, advocacy and empowerment of indigenous communities in Kenya. And she shares with our audience a beautiful song written by young people from the Ogiek community that speaks to the protection of the forests and which acts as an educational tool within the community.

Cindy signs off the show by sharing what she wants the upcoming COP27 climate conference in Egypt to deliver for indigienous communities and countries across the African continent.

Enjoy the show!

To support Tirap Youth Trust find their contacts on their website : https://tirapyouth.org/

Find the song by the Ogiek Youth on protections of the forest on this link:https://youtu.be/7JAO5cOpaJA

Twitter : @ogiekyouths| Facebook: @OgiekYouthCouncil

Welcome to the second episode of the Hali Hewa Podcast.

"Hali ya Hewa" is a Swahili term for "climate" and this podcast series is hosted and produced by Kenyan climate change activist, Abigael Kima.

Every month in the lead up to COP27, Abigael will be interviewing African climate change experts on the issues that matter to them most and inviting them to share what they feel the next international climate conference must deliver on.

One of the world’s most distinguished climate scientists joins Hali Hewa as a guest on today’s episode.

Professor Youba Sokona, from Mali, is Vice-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC is the United Nations body tasked with assessing the latest science related to climate change. Regular scientific assessments from the IPCC play a critical role in shaping the international communities’ response to the climate crisis.

In this episode, Professor Youba takes us through his journey at the IPCC and explains what the best available science currently tells us about climate risks and impacts faced by countries across the African continent. He also tells us what gaps in climate science and the governance of climate change he sees that must be addressed if the needs of African countries are to be met on key issues such as energy access.

Professor Youba signs off this episode by sharing his call to action to world leaders ahead of the COP27 climate talks, to be hosted in Egypt in November this year.

Enjoy the show!