Meet Suweyda Abdi, the pioneer climate activist speaking up for Somalis

Suweyda Mohamed Abdi is one of the few female climate activists in Somalia. She started her first campaign when she was still at primary school. It was very local, confined to the street she lives in in the capital Mogadishu.

“There was rubbish all over the place,” she says. “I told my family and neighbours to put their garbage in one pile in front of the houses.” She also persuaded the women who sold produce in the market to display their wares in baskets and to stop using plastic bags.

Her second target was schools where she convinced the staff to let her come in and speak to the children about the environment.

“I tell them not to throw rubbish in the streets and to use cotton bags,” says Abdi who makes bags out of old clothes and gives them to her family and schoolchildren.

Abdi donates trees which the children plant outside their schools and homes. Every two weeks, she checks on the saplings to make sure they were being cared for.

“When an internationally recognised government was established in Somalia in 2012, I decided to help rebuild the nation,” she says. “At first I had no idea where to focus my energy, but noticed little attention was being paid to the environment so I devoted my time to that.”

Now she has completed her studies at Somali National University, Abdi is devoting all of her time to climate activism. She works purely as a volunteer.

“My country is affected by climate change more than almost any other even though we don’t contribute much to the problem. But we must do what we can, planting trees, switching from disposable items to reusable ones, and developing proper environmental laws and implementing them fully.”