I Grew Up in Extreme Poverty and It Silenced Me. Defending Our Planet Gave Me Back My Voice. I believe that we are custodians of nature, and that it is our duty to protect it. Through my blog, which I started in February 2018, I do my best to promote awareness on sustainable living and wildlife conservation in Kenya. By participating in the various climate action-oriented innovations and activities by Kenyan youth, I tell their stories to inspire more people to be part of the solution. My goal is to enable or give people reasons to fall in love with our planet and wildlife. Environmental preservation and wildlife conservation holds the better part of my heart. I wish for a world where green is not just a colour but part of our existence, and where conservation doesn’t need policing but instead involves people willingly taking good care of our wildlife. I am lucky to have spent the best part of my childhood living next to Lake Nakuru National Park, in Kenya's Great Rift Valley, which allowed me access to wildlife and beauty while I was still very young. I also witnessed poaching, and poachers selling cheap game meat, because the meat from butcheries was somehow more expensive for most people in the neighborhood. My neighbors hid poachers and promoted these illegal trades. As I grew up, I understood how poaching caused a decrease in certain wildlife. We started seeing fewer types of animals from the fences, such as gazelle, and I started promoting awareness of the importance of staying away from poaching. At first, most people didn’t really understand it. Now, they ask questions, add their comments and opinions, and even tell me similar stories from their own experiences. Political instability robbed my parents of a lot while I was growing up, which forced us into extreme poverty. It was hard to be heard or even taken seriously when we didn’t have much back then. A lack of political will to address some of our challenges remains a problem in Kenya, but social media introduced a twist to it. If you are able to make good use of social media, then you are able to have your voice heard. Social media has helped me to promote education and awareness on the topics I am passionate about, and to connect to people doing the same. My passion for nature and wildlife led to my choice of pursuing a bachelor's degree, and I started studying wildlife management. I couldn’t wait to complete my studies and work in a wildlife field as a park warden or researcher. However, most of these jobs are heavily influenced by nepotism, so I looked for work for several years with no luck. I ended up taking what was available: a job as a call centre agent in a BPO (business process outsourcing). Despite the setback, there was no way I was going to let go of my passion for wildlife and nature. I started off with tweets and posts on matters concerning wildlife welfare and climate change issues. They were mainly my reactions towards what I saw in the news, or on the social media platforms. Most people have yet to give these two topics the attention they deserve. Education and awareness creation are seriously needed, while speaking up remains key. These gave birth to my activism. With time, I saw the posts and tweets didn’t allow me enough space to fully express what I needed people to understand. I wanted to share the importance of protecting our planet, especially wildlife. For example, the local media once referred to a stray elephant as "confused," choosing not to explain that the area was once a wildlife corridor that elephants used before. So I wanted to explain how it all started, what needs to be done, and preventions that needed to be in place. That's where blogging made more sense. I went ahead and created a website as a tool for my activism. I do my best to break down issues around sustainability and wildlife conservation in the simplest terms, with hope that I will reach more people and convince them to join the cause. I also tell stories of hope from what other people are doing towards achieving a better planet. This has led me to collaborate with more people and organisations in these fields, and we continue to help people understand issues around climate change, sustainability, and wildlife conservation. We help them see clearly the negative activities we engage in that are harmful to our planet, and take them through solutions to make our planet better. Our leaders need to acknowledge that climate change is already here with us, and it needs to be part of their daily conversations. We need them to make decisions that support climate action and not their greed. We already have climate refugees, and people who have lost a lot to the impact of climate change and will continue to suffer, as everyone else embraces a business-as-usual mentality. Just because you haven’t been hit yet, it doesn’t mean climate change is non-existent. It's already causing catastrophic problems, and we have limited time to act. Activists are not the enemy; they are just concerned people who are tired of doing and saying nothing as our planet burns. We need to embrace development practices that support the welfare of our environment: embracing clean energy, staying away from plastics, increasing our forest cover, supporting climate change education and awareness, and staying true to nationally determined contributions and greenhouse gas reduction targets. No action is too small when it comes to climate action. The simple act of carrying your reusable carrier bag, bottle, or cup means a lot to our planet. Embracing simple, sustainable acts at home is the beginning to the climate action we are yearning for as a planet. Climate change is a global challenge. We need to address it as a team.