A bright generation of teens and young activists is emerging
Here at The Global School for Social Leaders would like to share a list of some you should follow:
1. Xiuhetezcatl Martinez.
Xiuhtezcatl Martinez (Nahuatl pronunciation: [ʃuwˈteskat͡ɬ]) or Xiuhtezcatl Roske-Martinez is an indigenous environmental activist, hip hop artist and youth director of Earth Guardians, a worldwide conservation organization.
Martinez is one of 21 plaintiffs involved in the Juliana vs the United States case, suing the federal government for failing to act on climate change. The case began in 2015. A federal court rejected the government’s move to dismiss the case in November 2016. He is also one of seven plaintiffs involved in the Martinez vs Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission lawsuit, whose aim is the same as that of Juliana v. the United States but on a state level.
Organization: Earth Guardians. earthguardians.org/
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/Xiuhtezcatl
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/xiuhtezcatl.martinez
2. Hamzat Lawal.
Hamzat Lawal is an anti-corruption activist. He is the initiator of Follow The Money, and the founder of Connected Development, a non-profit organization that comprises data analysts, journalists, activists, and students.
Hamzat started his activism while in University of Abuja, then he was responsible for advocating for good student leaders. He has spoken out against corruption, human rights abuse and disfranchisement of community members. In 2013, he was almost arrested by Department of State Securities(DSS) after they accused him of instigating youths against the government.
Organization: Connected Development
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HamzyCODE
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ozohvehe
3. Eddie Ndopu.
The first African with a disability at the University of Oxford, And to be the first physically disabled person to travel to space. Just elected as SDG advocate by the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
During Ndopu’s second year at Carleton University, he was a research analyst at the World Economic Forum and led a campaign for the educational rights of children with disabilities.
Ndopu also undertook a program associate position at the now-defunct Clinton Global Initiative’s Global Minimum InLabs project.
Ndopu has served as a Youth and Advocacy Coordinator for Africa at Amnesty International, where he engaged with young activists to pressure lawmakers around the world to provide improved educational opportunities to youths with disabilities.
Ndopu has been recognized by Pacific Standard as one of their “top 30 thinkers under 30”, by Shaw Trust and Powerful Media as one of the 50 most influential people with disabilities in the world, and by South Africa’s Mail & Guardian as one of their “top 200 young South Africans“.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/eddiendopu
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/edward.ndopu
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4. Greta Thunberg
16-year-old Activist and initiator of the Fridays for Future and School Strike.
Greta Thunberg (born 3 January 2003) is a Swedish schoolgirl who, at age 15, began protesting about the need for immediate action to combat climate change outside the Swedish parliament and has since become an outspoken climate activist.
She is known for having initiated the school strike for climate movement that formed in November 2018 and surged globally after the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP24) in December the same year. Her personal activism began in August 2018, when her recurring and solitary Skolstrejk för klimatet (“School strike for the climate”) protesting outside the Swedish parliament in Stockholm began attracting media coverage, ]even though Sweden has already enacted “the most ambitious climate law in the world” – to be carbon neutral by 2045.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gretathunbergsweden/
5. Joshua Wong
Joshua Wong Chi-fung born 13 October 1996, is a Hong Kong student activist and politician who serves as secretary-general of pro-democracy party Demosistō. Wong was previously convenor and founder of the Hong Kong student activist group Scholarism. Wong first rose to international prominence during the 2014 Hong Kong protests, and his pivotal role in the Umbrella Movement resulted in his inclusion in TIME magazine’s Most Influential Teens of 2014 and nomination for its 2014 Person of the Year;[3] he was further called one of the “world’s greatest leaders” by Fortune magazine in 2015, and nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017.
In August 2017, Wong and two other pro-democracy activists were convicted and jailed for their roles in the occupation of Civic Square at the incipient stage of the 2014 Occupy Central protests; in January 2018, Wong was convicted and jailed again for failing to comply with a court order for clearance of the Mong Kok protest site during the Mong Kong protests in 2014.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Joshuawongcf
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joshua1013
6. Malala Yousafzai.
Malala Yousafzai, born 12 July 1997, is a Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate. She is known for human rights advocacy, especially the education of women and children in her native Swat Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, northwest Pakistan, where the local Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school. Her advocacy has grown into an international movement, and according to former Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, she has become “the most prominent citizen” of the country.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Malala
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MalalaFund/
Do you know someone who deserves a place in this list?