According to the African Development Bank, Africa is the most vulnerable continent to the changes in climate that are affecting the world over. This phenomenon, caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, is leading to warming temperatures and erratic rainfall across Africa. This has greatly impacted agriculture, the backbone of many African economies.

In East Africa, young people have risen up to help their communities to combat and adapt to climate change, innovating solutions around reforestation, clean energy, circular economies and sustainable agriculture and much more. One of them, making a difference to fight for a greener future.

In this documentary, we have tried to capture some of the innovations that the young people are taking against climate change. We also aim to inspire other young people to do similar initiatives and activities and at the same time draw the attention of partners that can come and support the work that they are currently doing.

A Kenyan youth, Didi Victor Ochieng’ wanted to make a change. With his initiative ‘Twins World’, he came up with the idea of attaching tree planting to families in communities. The project encourages parents to plant a tree in their homestead for every child born. Victor is just one of the innumerable young people in Africa, who have taken it upon themselves to help their communities respond to climate change.

In Kisumu, Kenya, by the shores of Lake Victoria, the largest lake in Africa is Dominique Kahumbu a resident of Kisumu and the founder of Biogas International. An organization that focuses on developing solutions for mainstream challenges we often find in rural areas and around developing countries. One of the technologies developed is a very simple biogas technology branded as ‘Flex Biogas’. The unique thing is that the systems are 100% pre fabricated and can run on anything degradable. Meaning that you are not dependent on animals.

Lina is a young architect from Ethiopia, with a passion for innovation. With her seed balls, Lina is making once inaccessible places accessible to tree planting and cultivation and portable bowls of seeds also reduce erosion, improving soil quality and preventing drought. Her high quality vegetable seeds also improve agricultural yields. increasing the likelihood of germination on harsh soil by 85%.

According to the Global Food Assistance Outlook of 2022, the population in need of humanitarian food assistance in Ethiopia has reached record levels in 2022. About 10 to 15 million people driven by ongoing insecurity and climate change that are likely to result in continued high need into 2023.

In a bid to help farmers increase their yields. Abraham Tegabu also founded a startup, the objective for his startup is to solve the agriculture sector problem by using contemporary technologies.

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About 70% of the African continent’s population is considered youthful. Owning a house is a dream to most young Africans. The cost of constructing a house is also very high. Faced with with increasing levels of water in Lake Victoria, most landing sites and islands are prone to floods during the rainy season.

Senene Island is one of the habitable floating islands found just 15 minutes from Kampala via the Portbell landing Site. Structures on this island are made of timber poles or bamboo with high compressive strength with low weight. Bamboo is looked at as a better option for construction since it is easy to replace, at low costs. Bamboo grows faster than other tree species. It’s a highly renewable and extremely versatile resource with multipurpose usage.

In Uganda, I came up to three university friends under their organization, Bamboo Concepts are working on a prototype house and a toilet made out of bamboo. Bamboo is elastic. In tough weather conditions, bamboo cannot break unlike other materials that would crumble. Bamboo creates walls that protect communities from rising waters and floods by blocking flood water and stabilizing riverbanks.

Climate change presents enormous threats to livelihoods, but we are not defenseless in its wake. Through this documentary we have presented the stories of just a few of east Africa’s innumerable people who are innovating to help their communities thrive in a warming and uncertain world.

These initiatives are providing livelihoods, restoring landscapes, cleaning water bodies, supporting women and girls and giving power to the youth- the demographic that holds the future of the continent in their hands. But most of these start-ups require investment and uptake by governments, donors and investors to make a change at a large scale.

We call on you to believe in our young people, to invest in a youth climate change innovator, to work with authorities to support these innovations to grow. Youth have the power to green our world for the better of generations to come. Let’s give them the chance.

This documentary is by the African Youth Initiative on Climate Change (AYICC) in partnership with InfoNile, supported by the Open Society Initiative for East Africa (OSIEA).