UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Vanessa Nakate Visits Winsor and Speaks Up for Climate Justice

Articulate and self-possessed, climate change activist Vanessa Nakate took the stage at Winsor’s David E. and Stacey L. Goel Theater on Thursday, September 28, where she addressed a rapt audience of students, faculty, and staff, as well as guests from Boston Latin School (BLS). After receiving a warm welcome from student leaders of Conserve Our World (COW) and BLS’s Youth Climate Action Network (YouthCan), Nakate described her sometimes uncomfortable journey to becoming a globally recognized climate activist. “It’s one thing to feel like you want to do something, but it’s another to actually do it,” said Nakate. But when she saw Greta Thunberg holding climate strikes in Sweden, she was inspired to do the same in her home country, Uganda.“The only problem was, I couldn’t strike from my room. I had to go to the streets.” She admits the first strike in 2018 was a bit lonely; her fellow activists were mostly her siblings and cousins.

Because the issue was so urgent, she persisted and began striking weekly, and posting on social media, eventually drawing international attention. A self-described introvert, raising her voice—even in pursuit of justice—is not something that came naturally. And yet, she quickly became adept at leading crowds and rallying them to call for climate justice.

At Winsor, she taught the audience a rousing call-and-response chant, her normally calm voice thundering through the auditorium, ramping up the energy to rock-concert levels in mere seconds. She seems to have perfected a careful balance between communicating the devastating statistics of climate change while also finding a reason for optimism. According to the Brookings Institute, Africa is the continent that contributes the least to global warming, producing approximately 3.8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, and yet 10 of the countries most at risk for the deadly effects of climate change are in Africa. The crisis in Africa, as well as Africans calling for climate justice, are often ignored in the international media, something that Nakate experienced personally when her image was cropped out of a photo with white activists at Davos. This imbalance in power, vulnerability, and visibility is what Nakate is highlighting in her calls for climate justice.“We can’t adapt to starvation,” she says. “We can’t adapt to extinction.”

Still, she finds hope in taking action, telling the truth about climate change, and banding together with others. And while she has experienced prejudice and exclusion, she remains consistently welcoming and inclusive of people from all backgrounds and of all ages.“I realized that no action is too small to transform the world,” she said.Now 26, Nakate has been nominated for the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize and she is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. She recently authored A Bigger Picture: My Fight to Bring a New African Voice to the Climate Crisis.

Julian Braxton, Winsor’s director of community and inclusion, was instrumental in arranging Nakate’s visit. As a member of Boston University’s African Studies Center’s Teacher Advisory Board, he knew that Nakate was scheduled to deliver the Bradford Morse Distinguished Lecture at their 70th Anniversary Gala. “I knew I had to make it possible for Vanessa to address the students at Winsor,” said Braxton, who worked in partnership with BU’s Dr. Elsa Wiehe.

Braxton says that the enthusiasm for bringing Nakate to campus is a reflection of the passion that students are already investing in clubs like Planet Protectors in the Lower School and COW in the Upper School. Aoife Beswick ’24, who is heading up COW this year, helped to introduce Nakate and moderate a question-and-answer session on stage with other student leaders. Like Nakate, she considers herself an introvert who is not afraid to speak up and join with others to tackle difficult issues. “My involvement with COW has taught me that sharing opportunities to get involved with climate action is essential,” said Beswick. “I enjoyed partnering with Boston Latin School’s YouthCan, which is a much bigger organization than COW, so our newfound connection with them will help Winsor students connect with the wider Boston community.”

Nakate’s presentation and especially her point that young people alone cannot fix the climate crisis resonated with Beswick. “It’s true that the push for climate action is coming from young people, but we also need the help of older and more powerful people to actually implement the change we want. Climate change is not some abstract future threat that will not affect the older generations. It is happening now, and change has to happen now!” The Winsor School would like to thank Vanessa Nakate and all those who attended and helped make this presentation possible, including: 

Boston University  
Ambassador Mark Storella, Director of the African Studies Center
Dr. Elsa Wiehe, Director of the African Studies Center K-16 Education Program 

Boston Latin School 
Hannah Stoll, YouthCan
Quyen Vo, YouthCan
Students from BLS AP African-American Studies 

The Winsor School
Aoife Beswick ’24, COW
Zoe Vittori-Koch ’24, COW
Julian Braxton, Director of Community and Inclusion