Future Rising Quarterly

QUARTERLY

April 2023

Dear Girl Rising Community,

We are delighted to introduce the inaugural edition of our Future Rising Quarterly. This issue features articles written by our Senior Fellow, Lauren Ritchie, including an inspiring profile of Dr. Winnie Kiiru, one of our Advisory Council members and esteemed conservationist. We also shine a spotlight on two of our Future Rising Fellows, Astrid Peraza from Costa Rica and Geela Garcia from the Philippines. Future Rising Fellow Ayomide Solanke, from Nigeria, shares her journey traveling to Austria to showcase her graphic novel for the first time at a global convening of like-minded educators. We cap off our first publication with recommendations from our Fellows on what to watch, listen and read.

This newsletter highlights the Future Rising Fellows’ impactful work at the intersection of climate change and gender equity. As we continue to face unprecedented environmental challenges, the need for innovative solutions becomes more pressing. Investing in girls’ education is one such potent and powerful climate change solution. Through Future Rising we seek to empower young people to become leaders in their communities and develop into compelling storytellers that can inspire and activate change, contributing to a more sustainable future for us all. We invite you to explore our newsletter and join us in our mission to create a brighter tomorrow.

The

Future Rising Team at Girl Rising

Cover Photo by Geela Garcia, Future Rising Fellow, Philippines

THIS IS OUR HERITAGE

Interview with Kenyan Conservationist and Girl Rising Advisory Council Member, Dr. Winnie Kiiru

Courtesy of @KiiruWinnie

Introducing Dr. Winnie Kiiru, a distinguished leader in Kenyan conservation, who’s passionately committed to providing African people, especially women and girls, with the education and tools they need to succeed in wildlife management. Dr. Kiiru credits her upbringing for her early passion for conservation and protecting the natural world around her. “I had what I considered to be a normal childhood in touch with nature every day, picking firewood from the trees. My community is associated with vast wildlife and Mount Kenya, the second highest mountain in Africa and the only place where you can see snow on the equator. But our colonial history means that many African people don’t see things like hiking the mountains as something they can do. For many African women especially, we stay away from those wonderful creations.” Kiiru has made it a point to traverse landscapes across the continent, having climbed Mount Kenya and the Aberdare ranges several times and conquering the tough climb to the top of Mount. Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa, in 2017.

As a child, she came to understand the value of practical, locally-oriented education and the shortcomings of the lessons inside the classroom. She recalls the difference between learning facts about giraffe locomotion in her high school textbook and visiting the national park with her father to see one in person. “I couldn’t believe the animal I saw in front of me was the same one in my textbook, and finally it all clicked,” Kiiru says. “When I studied biology, my home environment was never used as an example. The books we read and information we crammed were put together by people trying to educate us, but it lacked any context and left little room for interpretation of that knowledge.”

Dr. Winnie Kiiru (far left) with a group of Masai girls attending workshops at Oldonymusa Camp outside Amboseli National Park along with Girl Rising staff Anna Hall and Christina Lowery

Even with this insight, Dr. Kiiru feels incredibly privileged for her education and how it has afforded her many opportunities. She is a wildlife biologist with a background in research, policy, advocacy, and managing wildlife in humandominated landscapes. “It’s not a regular thing [for a Kenyan woman] to be able to study elephants up to PhD level.” Kiiru says.

Her life-long mission is to bring her knowledge to the various communities she works with and to center conservation around Africans and their shared space with animals and the natural environment. She does this by addressing the issue of educating Kenyan students in English. Her goal is to revolutionize the school system to translate educational materials and exams to their native language.

“These students don’t hear English anywhere except for school so catering their education to them will eliminate the language challenge so they can focus on understanding concepts. Education needs to make you a better person in the context in which you live.”

Driven by her passion to acknowledge local knowledge in ways that weren’t available to her, Dr. Kiiru founded CHD Conservation Kenya. This organization is dedicated to public enlightenment, embracing Kenya’s rich natural resources and heritage, and people-centered development. Her educational programs — two camps of 25 girls each and one

camp for boys — engage specifically with Kenyan youth through hands-on learning to foster a deep appreciation for wildlife.

“The Masai people are probably the best conservationists in the world because their lands have the most wildlife. For these kids, navigating the terrain is their daily reality.” Kiiru goes on, “If you ask them: what do you eat when you’re hungry? They will show you the chewing gum in the bark of the tree, or the little fruits in the bush. They can tell you that an elephant passed by yesterday based on the way the dust is arranged. I tell them that they already have a head start because they can walk in the bush without being afraid. But no one validates you when you’re just a kid walking through the bush with a stick.”

Glowing with pride, she described her joy to see girls who have participated in her camps and the group of girls who recently made it to class 8, a difficult and outstanding accomplishment according to Kiiru. “In the Masai village, girls are the ones who build the family home, who bring the water, and look after the goats. They are so busy and also go to day school, so

by the time she gets to her classes, she is exhausted and goes home from school to do more chores.” With worsening climate impacts, however, many of the girls that Dr. Kiiru works with fear they will be married off before they get to high school because their families have lost cattle. “Girls come to me shaking and petrified. Every time an old man comes to the village with sugar, they are terrified. Or if she sees her mother in a frenzy making marriage beads. She’s 14, maybe 15. But because of climate change, because of droughts and the cows have died and the families are desperate, she becomes a commodity. I explain to the girls: ‘Your parents don’t hate you. They aren’t doing this because they think you’re a bad person.’ In our culture, marriage brings dignity and there is upward social mobility in the transition from daughter to wife. These are the values their parents hold, and they don’t have examples of women who have gained dignity through education.”

When asked if she sees this culture shifting any time soon, Kiiru says that we must work on breaking these narratives and fighting the systems. She is grateful to use her experience and education to educate others and she is excited to inspire the next generation of African women conservation leaders. She wants young girls to know that they can make a career out of conservation by showing them other African women leading conservation efforts.“This is our heritage. This heritage of ours and the indigenous knowledge we have is valid and it can be built upon to help us understand better in our context. Instead of outsiders taking ours and then giving us the crumbs.”

Below, you’ll find Dr. Kiiru’s recommended TedTalk,

“Why Africa needs community-led conservation” by Resson Kantai Duff

“Education needs to make you a better person in the context in which you live.”

SHARING MY GRAPHIC NOVEL BY

AYOMIDE

SOLANKE

in

The thing about winter in Austria for a newbie from a warm climate is how genuinely shocking it can be. I left my home in Lagos, Nigeria at 32°C and all my efforts to prepare for Salzburg’s -10°C weather could not rise up to the challenge.

I arrived on that very cold morning to a warm reception of people at the Schloss Leopoldskron, a magnificent hotel in Salzburg and the venue for the Salzburg Global Seminar. And just like the weather, I cannot say I was fully prepared for the quality of the experience and conversations we had over the next five days. It was mind-blowing. We were a diverse group from all corners of the worldfellows from every continent, feminists, queer activists, and many organizations that advocate for women and girls from underprivileged communities.

On the first day, I was intimidated by the sheer combined wisdom in that room. Our discussions were filled with insight and experiences I hadn’t been exposed to before. My nerves must have shown on my face because Anna Hall from Girl Rising came from the other corner of the room, gave me a hug, and affirmed that

I was also deserving to be there. People should be reminded more often that they belong. They belong to spaces they may have been excluded from, and can actively engage in conversations armed with their unique lived experiences to share.

The central theme of the seminar was transformative education: What are the most effective approaches we can adopt to ensure that the education we give translates to the future we want to create? We spoke extensively about creating a whole systems approach and fostering culturally responsive education, namely education systems that are inclusive, drive gender equity, and are decolonial in their approach.

Ayo, a Future Rising fellow from Nigeria, writes about her experience at a global education conference

Salzburg, Austria

I observed how the remnants of colonial educational systems promote harmful gender socialization in schools and enforce dangerous gender stereotypes through the images in their course textbooks. A key example of this is having young children unable to identify women in maledominated fields or girl students unable to see themselves represented in these positions. We spoke specifically about the STEM field which still has fewer female practitioners because of the obstacles that still exist for their participation.

In culturally-responsive education, we address language barriers to learning, especially for indigenous cultures. A participant mentioned that teaching children in their native language, Maori, made a huge difference in learning outcomes. Think of the many children who struggle to learn in English due to the language gap. What a world of difference this can make!

that my novels adapt to the relevant cultures of the societies whose stories are told. It is important that they educate the reader from the perspective of the protagonist(s). These may mean that these stories are not always feel-good, but they are accurate and present a correct picture of what happens to many girls and women in underprivileged societies.

So why do we need gender equity?

One of the key takeaways from the seminar was that gender equity can transform education and not the other way around. Without gender equity, we create a hyper-male rigid society which forces males to display power so they are not seen as weak. This is the condition necessary for the rise of perpetrators of gender-based violence that terrorizes women and transgender persons; essentially an inequitable society creates victims of all genders.

Idara’s story highlights how drought increases rates of forced marriage and other violent acts against women and girls in Southern Nigeria. As I discovered, many similar practices of forced marriage exist in many regions today — a direct consequence of low-resource families looking to exchange their daughters for money and other resources. These practices hinder the education of many girls keeping them permanently out of the classroom as they tend to childbearing and wifely activities instead. This will truncate the course of their lives and may account for sustained poor socio-economic status of these women and girls.

The need to keep girls in schools cannot be overstated. An educated girl can contribute to her country’s economy and is a valuable asset to her family, her community, and to society at large.

In my own work as a graphic artist, culturally responsive education ensures

At the end of the seminar, I held my first ever book reading for my graphic novel, Idara’s Story. In a room full of people who were happy to listen to the book offer insights and explore the story of the protagonist; a young money wife based in the Southern region of Nigeria. For many in the room, the concept was new and also devastating . There I was able to educate people that many gender-based violence traditions exist for women and girls but we must continue to spotlight and campaign to see these practices end as Idara’s story seeks to do.

I reflect on the panel I shared with a professor of communication and an education advocate; the central theme explored how storytelling can transform how we approach issues. Until then, I thought that my book highlighted issues that only affect the African girl. It was an eye-opener to see the many forms that gender-based violence can take, even in Globally North nations. It helped me see Idara — the subject of my story — as a part of a larger network of girls whose lives and education are halted for reasons that many societies have tried to justify.

As I sit here reminiscing about my trip and setting my intentions for the year ahead, I am reminded that learning is lifelong. I can learn, I can evolve, and I can do more to transform my space and people around me by ridding myself of cultures and teachings that no longer serve today’s learner. It doesn’t matter how long these beliefs may have been held, but how soon we do away with beliefs that will hold us down if we hold onto them.

This lesson continues to shape my approach to education and I hope it can guide yours too.

Ayomide Solanke is an activist and visual artist from Lagos, Nigeria. She worked as an Urban Community Engagement Officer for sexual reproductive health education at the MTV Staying Alive Foundation, and then as a State Youth Ambassador for life planning amongst adolescents and youths in Lagos. Ayomide continues to work on community health projects that seek to improve the sexual health behaviors of young people in urban communities in Lagos.

To read Ayo’s graphic novel, download it here

Excerpt from “Idara’s Story” by Ayomide Solanke, Future Rising Fellow, Nigeria

Q&A Q&A Q&A Geela Garcia

Last month, I had the pleasure of speaking to Future Rising Fellow Geela Garcia, a multimedia journalist and peasant advocate based in Manila, Philippines. Her photography, which documents stories of women, food sovereignty, and the environment, aims to write history from the experience of its often unseen makers. Her work in food justice is motivated by her desire for all oppressed peoples to have access to basic necessities, especially food, and for the general public to appreciate the hands that produce our food.

Geela’s writing and photography appear in Thomson Reuters Foundation, South China Morning Post, and Philstar among others. Get ready to be inspired by her passion and dedication.

Below, Geela in conversation with Lauren Ritchie, Future Rising Senior Fellow.

Your Future Rising Project will chronicle the lived experiences of indigenous Ivatan women on the island of Batanes. Why did you choose to tell this story?

My photo essay project will chronicle the traditional farming practices of the Ivatan people of the Batanes, the northernmost island in the Philippines. The Batanes is ravaged by typhoons year after year and I wanted to look at how different families of farmers have created solutions to climate impacts and the growing tourism industry in the region. I will explore what food security looks like at the household level and illustrate how those living in the cities can reframe their relationship with food and the natural environment by learning from their lifestyles.

I came to work on food security because, well personally, I really like food and eating but there’s also so much politics to explore surrounding the food

we eat and where it comes from. Food is a basic way that everyone on the planet is connected, so telling these stories is a way to connect ourselves to the struggles of those who produce our food. I’ve also found journalism to be a very maledominated industry and it feels important for me as a woman to be the one to cover women-focused stories, especially stories about women’s rights and their bodies. Our perspectives aren’t heard often enough.

At my core, I care very deeply about the environment. I believe that many resources should be better allocated based on need rather than profit. I became an environmentalist because of this.

What inspired you to become a storyteller?

I took a news writing class during college and I began to write about the different issues I witnessed around me. I had recently learned about the dangers faced by Indigenous environmental defenders in the Philippines and I was inspired by their courage and efforts. I want to help people tell their stories, especially since many stories in the Philippines about gender and climate issues are underreported. I also enjoy meeting new people, visiting their homes, and getting to know more about their experiences.

Why is it important for individuals to learn about protecting the environment and creating climate solutions for indigenous communities, especially indigenous women?

I think the key lesson we can learn from Indigenous women is how to live simply. We exist in such a complicated world with different definitions of success, most of which are tied to material gains and overconsumption. When I watch Indigenous communities simply value their land, their homes, and their communities, I question why people crave such excess. It comes down to reevaluating our priorities about consumption, learning to give back to the Earth, and taking only what we need.

How do you hope that this fellowship will enrich your experience as a storyteller?

This fellowship has opened me up to different mediums of storytelling and I’ve been able to learn from communities around the world. We have a great opportunity here to widen our perspectives and engage with different cultures and traditions to compare the local solutions to climate impacts in our regions. Working with such great activists and storytellers from all over has given me great hope for international solidarity.

Who inspires you and what do you hope to accomplish with your own voice?

Women farmers, absolutely. I am inspired by how they balance care work with their

farm work, while also facing the impacts of climate change. I admire their resilience and their grit. They empower me to be more confident with my own voice and motivate me to strengthen my skills as a journalist. By the end of this fellowship, my goal is to say that I have created my first piece of long-form content about agriculture. I plan to make more projects about food security issues in my country in the years to come.

Where is the best place to eat in your country?

For Filipino food, my favorite would be Manam restaurant. I love how they serve Filipino classics with twists. Try their watermelon sinigang and crispy palabok, they are my favorites. I also like visiting Chinatown, the Philippines actually has the oldest Chinatown in the world. It’s best for street food and of course, Filipino-Chinese dishes. My favorite restaurants in Chinatown would be Ying Ying and Wai Ying, and I always order their fried wonton.

What are you listening to and reading right now?

Lately I’ve been listening to Vietnamese music. I’m bad at making playlists, but I’ve been returning to this Spotify radio for quite some time now. I’m also currently reading up on Ivatan culture and I just started the book, Dear Meg, which talks a lot about the struggles of being an activist. I’m really enjoying it so far!

Q&A Q&A Q&A Astrid Peraza

Meet the vibrant and inspiring Costa Rican environmental activist and Future Rising Fellow Astrid Peraza. She’s on a mission to ensure girls have access to climate education and is a true leader in her community. Astrid mentors young girls through the environmental organization, Greentalist, and she is a passionate spokesperson for the Escazu Ahora Costa Rica campaign. This groundbreaking campaign advocates for the first-ever international treaty in Latin America and the Caribbean concerning the environment and protecting the rights of environmental defenders.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Astrid about her journey in climate activism and how she has developed her environmental storytelling skills as a Future Rising Fellow. She hopes to form a supportive collective for girls eager to enter into STEM fields and develop leadership skills.

Below, Astrid in conversation with Lauren Ritchie, Future Rising Senior Fellow.

How did your upbringing in Costa Rica shape your understanding of climate change?

I was born and raised in Pavones, a province on the Pacific coast. I was always very close to the sea and I remember there were mangroves right behind my high school. I’ve always felt very connected to the environment and my community because of this, especially since climate issues are very prevalent in my province. Many live off of fishing in my community but because of

climate change in recent years, fishermen now come back empty-handed. Growing up in the coastal provinces also made me think more about development conflicts, especially rural tourism which exploits local people who never reap the benefits. The government tends to abandon the coastal provinces altogether.

What is your most memorable climaterelated experience?

I was ten years old the first time I tried to organize a recycling program at my school. Even at a young age, I always wanted to protect the environment. I had ideas to plant more trees and I was excited about protecting nature, but my teacher immediately refused my ideas and nobody took me seriously.

I really think seeing the lack of priority for climate issues at my school made me focus on climate education. I want everyone to have access to information about climate and there are many moments when I think my community was taken advantage of because we didn’t know how the consequences would impact us in the long term.

You studied Materials Science and Engineering. How do you connect that STEM background with your activism work?

When I started high school, I really liked chemistry. I chose Materials Science to investigate the structures, properties and processing of materials, especially the harm

that materials like plastics can cause to the environment and search for better, safer alternatives. I currently work as an engineer and I plan to go for my Master’s Degree in something related specifically to climate change and transforming resources to better protect the environment. You’ve done quite a lot of work advocating for the Escazu Agreement. What is it and what will it do for Latin American countries?

The Escazu Agreement looks at three main things: increasing the accessibility of climate information, increasing participation of environmental defenders in decision-making, and protecting the rights and safety of those risking their lives to protect the environment, especially Indigenous peoples who are killed for their efforts without any justice. Some Latin American countries like Colombia have ratified the agreement, but Costa Rica has signed without ratification, meaning that the contract isn’t yet formally legally binding. We’re still having meetings with the current government to convince them to ratify.

Tell me more about your Future Rising project. Why did you choose to tell this story?

I am creating a short documentary that highlights the mangrove conservation work of a community of women in Manzanillo, a small rural village on the coast. I will explore how they have empowered each other, and the employment opportunities they’ve created within the community. The mangroves are so vital for food and water security and their story resonated with me because I realized that everything they were doing was very conscious, well-informed, and intentional. I admire their goals for the future, especially the older generations who strive to make a better future for their daughters and grandchildren.

What impact do you hope your project will have on your community?

I hope that seeing these empowered women onscreen will inspire more women in communities to come together and protect the ecosystems they live in. I see a great opportunity for other women to replicate these methods across Costa Rica, create employment opportunities, and foster community.

Who is a person from history you’d want to get dinner with?

Julieta Martinez, She’s from Chile and she was a part of the 2021 Future Rising cohort. She recently released a book this past week and I have been very excited to read it. I’d love to ask her so many questions about it.

Where is your happy place?

“Definitely with my best friend. I live with him right now so I guess when we’re at home. He’s the one I tell everything to and he gives great advice. He’s just so honest.”

What are you watching or reading right now?

I’ve been watching a lot of documentaries lately. The best one is called The Sacrifice of a Land. It centers around mangroves in Ecuador and how a community is working to protect the environment from human impacts and also highlights how vital it is to protect them. I like this one because it’s so close to the situation in Costa Rica.

WATCH READ LISTEN Future Rising Recommends

Princess Mononoke (Connie and Faebian recommends, Colombia) Virunga (Aida recommends, Uganda)

A Small Place, Jamaica Kincaid (Lauren recommends, The Bahamas)

Aké: Years of Childhood, Wole Soyinka (Raini recommends, Kenya)

Uka, Margaashiin Nar Luu Hamt Ayalah (Anu recommends, Mongolia)

QUARTERLY

April 2023