 Yes, welcome back to Why In The Morning. Welcome back to Queens Wednesday. On Why In The Morning, my name is Barry Moses. It's my most social media. This is strength of a woman. It happens to be one of my favorite segments of the week because I had to meet people who were doing amazing stuff and interact with them and learn a lot from them. My strength of a woman of the day is only 19 years old and she has a movement, an environmental conservation movement. She's passionate about conserving the environment and she is here with us to share her story, Kiribu Sadam. Thank you. And it's a sonia. Your camera is number four. You can list any other things that are left out of the intro. Okay. Anita, as we just said, I'm a student at Multimedia University pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in PR and Corporate Communication. I'm a third year. I'm an inspirational speaker. I'm an online marketer. And most importantly, an environmental warrior. A green warrior. All right. A green warrior. All right. I like that. I just saw the mic steady at the center. All right. You're studying Corporate Communication. But you are passionate about the environment. How did you end up in Corporate Communication first? I think because I talk too much. And then... It doesn't seem like it though. Yeah. I talk too much. And I also... I think I just love a lot of online stuff. And that is the only field that I could go... I could get into. And exercise this. Exercise your passion for being online. And just saying, all right. So when did this passion for conserving the environment or this fight for the environment start? Because you're a warrior. First you can say passion is something that's always there. But I discovered it after my high school. When I was just there, I didn't have anything to do. So I enrolled for mentorship under a certain organization called Spice Without Borders where the founder is my mentor. And that is when I noticed I had passion for environment conservation. And then I even remembered back in high school when I was a scout. You know, scouting is all about fan keys and all that. Yes. That is the reason most of them, not most of us, most of them joined the scout. Yes. So... But for me, I also like taking care of the trees that we planted in school and all that. And then also growing up in a family where my grandfather valued trees so much, he had a small natural forest that people destroyed it after he passed on because they wanted firewood and everything else without planting the trees, without reforestating the place. This was painful. Yeah. That was so painful. And I think, yeah, that's when I noticed, no. I think I know where my love is. All right. This natural forest that was brought down by villages or the people who live around where your grandfather was living, did you see the direct effects of cutting down this forest that you saw growing up? Yeah. And up to date, I still can't say I've seen the effects because it's not only my grandfather's forest that was destroyed, but the trees along the stream that was there because we have a stream down there. So all the trees along the stream, you can't see trees like we used to long time ago. And we have the stream drying up and everything else. So I think that's another effect. All right. So really, the stream is drying up because the trees were brought down. The landscape has changed because these trees were brought down and everything. This is one of the reasons you joined this movement to push or fight for the environment. And also because I think if I don't do it, nobody else will do it. In the fact that I know many people are in the field of conservation, but you see the way you're doing things here, nobody can do it the way you're doing it. So I don't think if I stop doing it, nobody will do what I'm supposed to be doing. All right. So talking about trees and the environment, the knowledge and the science behind it is complex. It's complicated. Talking about the poles. We're talking about the oceans. We're talking about the lakes. We're talking about the air, the what exists in the air. Or how can I put this? The elements that exist around us, there's so much science that goes into it. Do you take your time to understand this or how do you go about your fight for the environment? First, you know, the tough language of conservation scares away many people. So I really try hard to understand it. And maybe when posting something on my social media, I break it down. You'll never find me posting something long, something hard people won't understand. What is mitigation, adaptation or whatever? We went for a conference and a certain friend of mine was telling me what is mitigation, what is adaptation. It's a common term used in conservation. It's not a hard term, but not everyone understands. So I try so much to understand the simple language. And then you try to understand it and then convert it to a simple language. So again, not being an environmental science student or a science student, I really find it difficult. When I want to go out and plant trees, which tree does well in this area? Which tree doesn't do well in this area? Why am I buying this tree? So I get knowledge from my friends who have studied the same course. I even have international friends doing masters on environmental science. I really ask a lot from them. All right. I like, so trees, maybe you can share the importance of trees to the people who are watching right now. People, some people maybe they don't care or they just say, tell her with this, what do I need trees for? I live in a flat. I go to work in the CBD. I come back home. What do I need trees for? I use gas to cook. I use electricity. Maybe you can just highlight some of the importance, some of the importance of growing trees. Simple. First, it purifies our air. Attracts rain. That is the most important one. Yeah, that's the most important one. Then it also attracts rain. Firewood is important. Let me just tell you this. I was discussing this with a friend about the importance of using firewood over gas. Long time ago, we had our old grandmas and everyone living long because they used to use firewood and everything else. Let's talk about milk. When boiling milk using gas, gas will just let the milk rise. Rise, rise and rise again, but the milk doesn't get well cooked compared to firewood. That's why you'll hear people having some some problems, some infections because they drank milk and then they thought they boiled it over and over again, but you can't compare gas to firewood. All right, so the cooking process is different. The heat that firewood gives is strong compared to gas. That is one of the things. Gas is just fast. That is just one of the things. So firewood is very important. It's very important to cook some of our foods with firewood directly. It's also very important that trees purify our air, sorry. Especially in the cities like Nairobi. You can compare downtown and uptown where we have trees. What happens? Yes, I choke a lot down there. And the other side, it's very, very conducive. But yeah, that's why there's a difference between someone who lives somewhere in Limoru, somewhere down there in Karen, and someone who just lives in an apartment. Somewhere. Around town or something, yeah. The health status is definitely going to be different. All right, you have a project, 20 trees for Anita Sonia. All right, what is it about? Okay, so this project is about the birthday campaigns that I'm so glad that many people... No problem, no problem. This is a free space in Asia. Many people are picking it up. They plant your age campaigns. Trees for birthdays and all that. So this year I thought it differently because I planted 19 trees this year, early January, to celebrate my 19th birthday. And this year I thought it differently. Like why instead of waiting till 24 December to plant 20 trees at my home, why can't I just do this with other people who love my work? So the first project we did it at Karyobangi, Outreach Children's Home, together with the Guardian Angel Foundation, they're the people who organized it for me. So the reason why I have this is I want people to invite me to their homes, invite me to your church, invite me to your school. Let's plant 20 trees for my birthday because one day when you're all gone, someone will say, I know Anita. I once bought her chocolates for her birthday, but yeah, I ate the chocolates and saw what. At least say we planted this tree. I don't have the chocolates and I didn't go with them. So at least say we planted these trees together and we can look at it and we can see it. What is the criteria? How are you growing these trees along the road side, along the roads or in people's compounds or in public places? What is the criteria of picking a place where you guys are going to grow these trees? Whichever the place, as long as the tree can grow. As long as the tree can grow. Yeah, exactly. I consider homes, people's homes, even if it's your own home, we can still do that. Church, institution, anywhere else where it's easy to get. You know, we also need a place to grow the trees. We have a lot of restrictions that you can't plant trees. Maybe along the road you can't do this. So we have to do it where it's not that hard for us. Quite loud. And you have to go through all these things with the county government and everything. Yeah, that's a long process. That's what I'm doing with people in their homes. Not in public places. I've done it in schools. We have done it in Kisumu National Polytechnic. That was our biggest achievement, I can say. It's a team, yeah. The trees are still alive, the trees are growing. Yeah, we even get messages and calls from the people. They're like, hi, we have about 98% tree survival. Yeah. All right. So the survival rate right now is at 98%? At the Kisumu National Polytechnic, where we planted over 1,500 trees. Wow. Yeah. I like. Wonderful. So schools, homes, churches, and just social places. So far. I like this. What are you doing about the forest that was cut down around your grandfather's area? That's what I'm planning. I really want to get my relatives because, you know, I want to start with the people around me. So before I get my team and take them to my home, yet I have relatives who can turn up and do the same. So I'm thinking of convincing them. I hope it's going. It's not going to be hard for me. I hope they're watching right now. Just look at them straight into their eyes and tell them family. I really hope it's not going to be hard for me. And the people of that particular area. Yeah. I want us to do and to re-forest the place and plant more indigenous trees, not in this case here. I like. What is your take on trees, growing trees as a cash flow? It's the thing that is affecting us, actually, because we have seen a lot of these meeting bow, blue gums and the rest, because those are the trees that give money. You can't tell someone to plant indigenous trees for money because indigenous trees take time to grow. Indigenous trees don't have value as blue gums and the rest. So I don't let people do business in other fields, please. But not with wood. Please, please, please. Just do business in other places. It's not in the environment. I really hate, I hate blue gums, not because they are bad. They're also trees. But you know, they dry up areas. All right, because they suck up a lot of water. A lot of water, exactly. Yeah. So it's really important if we just try and fail blue gums, like the people in Kisya are doing, the people in Kerechua had also started the same. So I would really like if people do that and do business elsewhere. Elsewhere. Let's not play around. We have oil. Do it there. If you have oil, do it there. Exactly. If you can cook, do it there. Let's not play games. Fashion, just do it there. Let's not play games in our environment. All right, when it comes to issues of environment, the people who are affected the most are the younger generation because they are the people who will have to live with the effects of what the older generation are doing to make money as we speak. So is there a program where you're incorporating the people who are younger than you to join in the movement? So we are working with a number of partners like the team environment Kenya in the greening schools program, which is a very, very important program that is creating awareness among kids and other people. And also what I really try a lot is now about my age. Leave alone younger than me because the scientists said that we have 11 years for climate change to become irreversible. 11 years time I'll be 30. So nobody can convince me that, you know what? It's not going to affect you. It's going to affect someone younger than you. It's affecting me as well. So to people, my age, I normally tell them that as much as you love fashion, you love music. You can't do that. You can't do that in vacuum. It's only in the environment. So you have to conserve. Whether you like it or not, unless you lose your passion, you also lose your passion for music, you lose everything. So there's nothing we can do whatsoever. Music to fashion, to politics without this environment that we have with us. All right, I like that young people are joining in the movement of environmental conservation. And we highlighted the story of the daughter of Wangari Madai, the one Wangari Madai. What does Wangari Madai impact your life and your goal and your vision? What role does she play in all this? Wangari Madai is an inspiration to almost every person in conservation. If you ask them, they'll say Wangari Madai because she really fought hard. When I go to Kaurura Forest, I just imagine what if Wangari Madai didn't, had not fought for this forest. Wangari Madai was a fighter that despite all the challenges she fought and stood hard for the environment. Another thing I like about Wangari Madai is that before people knew her, she was conserving. She didn't do it for fame. Yeah, she didn't do it for fame and everything else. So that's what I like about her. So, but when people tell me our Wangari Madai, yeah, it's nice, but I don't like it when people call me Wangari Madai. I haven't done as much as she has done. I may not do as much as she did. She was never me, you see. So I'm just following her footsteps. You're just following her footsteps. You don't want the comparison. You don't want the pressure. But no, the comparison is bad. But how are you Wangari Madai? No, I'm not Wangari Madai. I'm just an eater. So in me, I can't be someone else's photocopy. And I also say Wangari Madai did a lot that I really pray had that I also get to where she got. But it's work in progress for sure. Yeah, but from Wangari Madai, we learn one thing and I always tell people in conservation, if we don't work together, we are lying to ourselves because you're all working towards a common goal. So the competition, because let me tell you, to be sincere, nobody will tell you, in conservation industry or in conservation field, people compete so much like who is next to the UN environment or who was with NEMA yesterday or who was, and then people don't like partnering. And they post up on social media. Yeah, and what I'll tell people, partnership is everything. Like they say, partnership for the goals SDG17. If we don't work together, then we are lying to ourselves. We must remember that it's for a common goal. So from Wangari Madai, learn that don't do that for fame. If you want fame outside elsewhere, music, fashion, elsewhere, like I just said, don't do business in conservation. What did music and fashion ever do to you? It's what I have in mind. Okay, business and other things. This is another thing. But it's never for the fame. And the people who are trying to compete in this industry for donor fans and everything, they're in the wrong place and they're doing it for the wrong things, for sure. But I really wish that as you compete, let us see the impact. The impact. If the impact is okay, good. You guys can compete. Yeah. No, no, I can't compete myself. The end justifies the means. Anyway, we are the UN summit for environmental conservation. Don't say. I applied it and I got a very frustrating email. You got a really frustrating email. Yes. But there's always a next time. And you're only 19. And so you have some time on your plate. But we have this and this was going on. First, what did you think about the summit? It's a question from YouTube or the periphery. Let me say the summit is quite well. But as one of my friends says, speeches do nothing. I'll also echo her, speeches do nothing. Speeches do work if only you are working. You see, but from the climate summit I learned a lot from one girl who really inspires me greater. Because if you check on our social media pages, what's happening now is people are like, people now, even one of the biggest people in the world is really abusing this young girl for doing what she's doing. Someone says, I am an environmentalist, but I don't believe in climate change. What's that? It don't make sense. It comes out to talk bad about the young girl who's really trying her best. At her age, Greta doesn't read speeches at her age. She gets it from the mind, meaning she knows what she's doing. She knows what she's doing. She has not been coached by anyone. That's her. She knows what she's doing and she knows what she's talking about. Exactly. So we really need to appreciate her. For people to get to understand what we are talking about right now, let's get a clip of Greta addressing the UN summit, then we'll be back with some more of this. My message is that we'll be watching you. This is all wrong. I shouldn't be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you? You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I'm one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction. And all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you? For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away and come here saying that you're doing enough when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight. You say you hear us and that you understand the urgency. But no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act, then you would be evil and that I refuse to believe. The popular idea of cutting our emissions in half, in 10 years, only gives us a 50% chance of staying below 1.5 degrees and the risk of setting up irreversible chain reactions beyond human control. 50% may be acceptable to you. But those numbers do not include tipping points, most feedback loops, additional warming hidden by toxic air pollution or the aspects of equity and climate justice. They also rely on my generation sucking hundreds of billions of tons of your CO2 out of the air with technologies that barely exist. So a 50% risk is simply not acceptable to us, we who have to live with the consequences. To have a 67% chance of staying below a 1.5 degrees of global temperature rise, the best odds given by the IPCC, the world had 420 gigatons of CO2 left to emit back on January 1st, 2018. Today that figure is already down to less than 350 gigatons. How dare you pretend that this can be sold with just business as usual and some technical solutions? With today's emissions levels, that remaining CO2 budget will be entirely gone within less than eight and a half years. There will not be any solutions or plans presented in line with these figures here today because these numbers are too uncomfortable and you are still not mature enough to tell it like it is. You are failing us but the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you and if you choose to fail us, I say we will never forgive you. Yes, the last statement is very strong. We will never forgive you. Is the environment worth all that darkness? Never forgive. Because nature also never forgives. Nature never forgives as well. So Greta is channeling that energy right there. All right, people have chosen to talk about history with mental health issues and everything but I choose to focus. People start talking bad about her and think she has eye problem. People don't listen to what she says. Yes, I choose to talk about what she's talking about. The fact that she's brought to the table and the fact that the effects of what we are doing today are going to be the people who are going to hurt the most. Because what we do today is going to hurt tomorrow and tomorrow we might not be there. The previous generation is the generation that is going to be there. So I choose to focus on what she was talking about. And the points are people have been talking, talking, talking. This year you and Summit, next year you and Summit, the other year. But nothing much has really been happening. I also say before we even look at the leaders, we who are joining Greta in the streets. Did you see the number of people who are joining Greta in the streets? Yes, and they are very young people. As you support Greta on the street, support what she's fighting for. Which is... So at least if it's avoiding single use plastic, start by yourself. Don't go to the street to support Greta just because you want to be on the street to bash out of the government. I like that. What are you doing at your own personal level? Yes, and some of them are even in the streets with plastic plaques. Exactly. Yes, and demonstrating with plastic plaques. Someone has a plastic water bottle and you have a placard written, Refuse Single Use Plastic. It doesn't make sense. Don't go to the street until you change your life. When you go to support Greta, please support what she is fighting for. Exactly. Are you a Greta supporter? Yes, I support Greta and I support what she is fighting for. Our leaders are not doing much. Alright. Speeches, speeches, waiting for a world environment day. For 15 people to surround one tree and call it a day. One tree in 15 social media platforms. So we all think 15 trees were planted. Never. Thank you very much for coming and sharing what you're doing. When and where is your next project and how can people join the movement? Your camera is number four. About my next project, currently I can't say we have one, but we have a partnership with Team Environment Kenya and we are going to aim tomorrow all the way to Sunday for the Greening Schools Program. And then my next 20th for Anita Soina event might be in Nairobi Training TTI, Nairobi Teachers Training Institution. And to join our movement, just check us on social media, especially on Instagram and Facebook, Spice Warriors. We don't know how to be a fully registered member, but we don't have qualifications like you need to have this, you need to have this. For someone to conserve the environment, we just need you and that's all. All we need is you. We don't need any qualifications for you to be able to conserve the environment. Your social media handles so that they can interact with you as well. My social media handles, Twitter, Anita Soina, and on YouTube, Anita Soina. What's on YouTube? Yes, I'm on YouTube. Your project? Yeah, my project. You recommend them and put them on YouTube? I just post a few videos on my inspirational side and then also on a few ways to conserve the environment and all that. And then we also have the Spice Warriors YouTube where we now have most of our activities. All right, thank you very much Anita Soina for coming through. We appreciate you keep pushing, keep doing what you're doing to get to the next UN summit so you can represent your views as well. All right, yes, we've come to the end of Strength of a Woman. We had Anita Soina who is an environmental conservation warrior. That is the right time right there. Green warrior? The green warrior is studio with us. If you know somebody who, a queen in particular who's doing amazing stuff as well, send their information out on our social media handles they're right there below the screen so we can highlight their story. Thank you very much.