Meet Esohe Ozigbo, a 15-year-old climate activist from Nigeria

Hello readers,

Welcome to #Women4theclimate on Cleanbuild Voices!

Today, we introduce to you our WCW: Esohe Ozigbo, a 15-year-old Nigeria-born climate activist.

One fateful day, Esohe together with her friends were spotted wearing gloves and masks as they waded through a ton of plastic bottles, food containers, and bags blocking the waterway.

Their goal was to create a free passage for water to avoid flood in their neighborhood of Sangotedo,  while also raising awareness of how plastic can cause huge flood problems.

Esohe Ozigbo single-handedly led a group of youngsters like her to take action about the issues of the environment.

Esohe is a member of Greenfingers Wildlife Initiative, a nonprofit conservation group that gets funds from donations and works with youngsters to stage the “Trashion” show in malls. She revealed that the Swedish Greta Thunberg who is also an environmental activist happens to be her inspiration and she really desires for the show to make shoppers think about their environmental actions.

Not just bagging refuse, riding the environment of carelessly disposed waste, she leads a group of young people to create fashion from the trash which she tagged “ Trashion”. Creative, not so?

Joining other environmental activists, the 15-year-old made fashion from dumped items such as plastic bottles and shopping bags. They went on to host the fashion show in shopping malls where they create green awareness with an interesting caption.

While expressing her joy, the youngster said she has been in the business of climate for years and she feels happy showcasing to everyone what can be done with the waste.

“ The Trashion show means a lot to me… and I really think it is like use making a statement and showing that we care about the environment and you should too”.

The young activist recognizes the need to take care of the environment. She urges other teenagers to try to be a changemaker in the world.

In her words “ we are the generation who are going to be leading in a few years and like the older people at the end of the day will end up leaving this earth and we will be the ones left with it, so we need to start now because in a few years it is going to be too late to do anything”.

With her group, Esohe has done a lot of community cleanup, tree planting, environmental awareness, and the ultimate being the “ the Trashion show”.

There you have it, a young woman making a change and saving the planet, join the voice, and let us create a safe environment.

Watch this space as we’ll be back next week to spotlight another amazing woman.