Anybody to improve the lives of the people that live in our village. Of. Its a wonderful. Time for me because i have seen the other side of what i got to even imagine most in the oratory and what is even more exciting that ive seen you apply i researched on in africa. Just something i couldnt imagine you when i was 25. So by your leave. My name is sheila. I was born in nigeria i studied medical biochemistry and then went on to do a ph d. In plant biochemistry. I did some stock troll work in oxford at the institute of viral ajeet and environmental microbiology. And i specialized on a system called the bacula virus Expression System which is a methodology that you used to genetically modify viruses. About time i went to university i felt really prepared for the world and then i realized perhaps i was i wasnt quite as. Gender dynamics i didnt understand it im 18 years old i mean the university the idea that people had that women couldnt do things was shown to me because id never been in an environment where people just thought as a woman youre less than me just didnt make any sense to me. After i married and had children. I really wasnt interested in going back to science because it was just too difficult. I was fortunate that my exhusband actually had studied women in development and he said you know the statistics number one of women who get to do ph d. Like any women in the u. K. Is like 1st of all at that time is that 6 percent they do ph d. Male or female of the population and over how many of them are women its less than half its probably like 10 percent over that how many of them african you actually have to go back i realise that i wanted to do more in Community Work so right now im working a lot with the un environment and an environment to work with different agencies. The big sign to fix. Our time is Climate ChangeClimate Change and hard effects us in so many ways. In africa the discourse the conversation is around adapting to Climate Change. African countries and developing countries basically not because of Climate Change per se but theyre the ones suffering the most from the impact so how the conversation in Climate Changes is developed countries must mitigate reduce their emissions and african countries must adapt. So with Climate Change a number of scientific lines of inquiry but i would say in terms of what we are interested in in some of the creatures that weve worked with its to do with Climate Change and help. Climate changes cause malaria epidemics to be more prevalent malaria cholera all of these things that have to do with the ecosystem changing so now youre looking at how Climate Change is affecting the disease. Disease outbreaks and how now the system can adapt better. To syria strategically important in the Western Region of kenya because it borders Lake Victoria and the lake is very important because it borders uganda tanzania and kenya and all of those communities living around there are living off the resources of the lake and the lake is being rapidly degraded. So getting communities to understand how theyre all impacting each other is an important part of the work were doing in getting people to understand what ecosystems are and also what they can do to restore their lives. This is the smaller now. That the other one is bigger and then people use it like they just fry how much they kill we particularly decided to work with women because we understand how women very quickly see the big picture of their work and their position in community. But in the bigger frame how do we get women who are farming in different parts of the lake to understand. How pesticides can run off into the lake and affect the livelihoods of women on the other side who are fishing how do we connect these groups to begin to understand the impact. And how do we then connect the factories that are. Polluting the lake to understand what a devastating impact it is to the communities that they are living in so everybody thats working around that. Has an impact and has a responsibility. Kisumu is a county that adopted me when i came back to kenya in 20142015 so its a county that i feel very close to im very personally invested in the future of kisumu so one of the projects that were involved in working on and going to increasingly put our resources and energy in is the water hyacinth project increasingly. Its important that communities understand the science that affects them and so when we look at communities like kisumu. Which is very much impacted by a pest on the lake. When communities are not empowered to help to understand that system they cant make decisions for you. Ya cant want to when you do you much. You are very large you will. Come on oh no you go into our view on that. You. Eliminate. One and records will come on im not a millionaire. I was born in a place like this in nigeria. I study science because when i was growing up as a child i was very interested in in sex i would play by the river so i was curious about the Natural World signed up studying science and i became a scientist then one day i came back to my mother and i said to her oh look im in a magazine see me this is my work theyre talking about the work that im doing and she said it is good my daughter it is good but how is this work that you are doing here going to relate to the people back home so when she asked me that question i didnt have an answer. What is it that we can do to transform the lives of women and we were looking at everything the city Health Agriculture all the different sectors what kind of science can we bring in to make a difference to the lives of everyone in syria. We have to bring anything we have learned from anywhere and planted where we can have effect and with people that we love so as we move we must all move to get into a Better Future because that is what we want for ourselves and our children and by gods grace by the time we reach 2030 those see a different piece in this kenyan prayer. This really touches my heart working with women across the lake who harvest the water hyacinth because the work that i was doing from ph d. On was looking at the past we are looking at how to help people manage pests better so that they can enhance their livelihood. There was a lot of what i asked in but because. The moment you start seeing long grass. Coming out of it that you know its the life cycles coming to and so that is a time it is a yes it sinks to the bottom of the water within no time again its the water body. What the women were able to do is to understand that although its a pass they can harvest it in the same way as they harvest some of the pirates and all the other resources there and that they can use it to make products and over time theyve begun to make more more sophisticated products and theyve begun to open up new markets for high in good schools. And. I can see this growing as the machinery volume bigger products comes but it starts with the women going out on to the late getting the water hyacinth relieving it into threads and very manually developing the road then gets made into the part of the. World. So when i got involved in the water hyacinth project and began to see what they were doing you know the work that came to me was like wow just moving from west to profit really its just a very simple trajectory. When we went into the community to talk to the women they had formed into a collective which had a name in which. Were fighting away poverty that was the name of the group but now this time when we went to ask them the name of the group they said you know were now the women who live under the shade and honestly. I nearly cried because that really shows the transformation of a community they renamed themselves they were like you no longer chasing poverty we have a livelihood were living under the shade were no longer suffering from the harshness the line vironment we figured out how to make this and this is who we now are and that was the most mission and. So on the 8th of march International Womens day we formally launched now a the network of africa women environmentalist to showcase African Women environmentalist of all Different Levels and how they can be brought to help the ecosystems restoration agenda. No you were yeah the other ladies are waiting sure were going meet them yes let me just put this here and then well get a brilliant brilliant lets lets just grab it and then lets get you all the big ok. She now welcome back yes this is exciting i need to introduce you saw this is who is the head of our Africa Office here at un environment and this is leading our energy work on the african continent and janet who is the head over our Agenda Program here and then an active and launch yes yes yes she was at the launch of maui indeed it just happened that on the 1st of march the United Nations through the government will salvador put together a resolution which was passed on the 1st of march for the u. N. Decade on eco system restoration and we know how much land on this continent is degraded you know how many women are suffering so this decade is now 2021 through 2030 the last 10 years of the Sustainable Development goals one of the things we found and rob it of governance is that women are not at the Decision Making we might see that women are the ones who are in touch with their environment because of the work they do a daily basis but in terms of disease should making the not there important because they feel the brunt of the decision by their. Own down upon disadvantage one of the areas of focus and not was a waste of Climate Change this is still the everywhere i think interface between all you see and saying these fundamental point is this is and this is that but its a zoning boards and in no way. Exactly and i think for us part of our thinking around the network on African Women environmentalists was what weve just discussed looking at the political element. Which i think was so important and also looking at the realities what is the reality in in women who live its going to take off doing more and it have to reach the connection have to go all the way to the ground we have to feel the impact and so what she has been able to mediate the of bringing you wonderfully death on board because shes been a champion for it and to get women that are truly committed to it because its different for every women that just have positions with women that have heart in it and i have good news for now and eunice call told me in their whiny form to promote women scientists were ours is her. Program. This will not our last meeting this is just this is. Very. Very. Dangerous on i think its really hurting us. Society comes together in the governance system and then the science is one aspect of it you see the beautiful in Climate Change because you look at the Climate Change agreement or not and how countries agree to reduce emissions hopefully the science tells you that this is impacting our vironment and negative ways it is causing is exacerbated Climate Change hopefully that makes the political Decision Makers say therefore we will close these factories therefore we will do this differently but the trigger the initiated the propeller is the political will of the top so. The best science in the world most of it a lot of it is left on the shelf because theres not the political will and even in Something LikeClimate Change as we have seen the loss of political will could mean we lose this battle. I want to become a transformative scientist so that everything that i apply myself to brings about a transformational impact that is visible and in my lifetime. By bringing women in around particular landscapes and ecosystems together how do we improve that landscape and restoring a lot of the. Farms. In rural africa left because young people who want to buy life they dont want to farm there its no longer coo the profits are low they want to go to the city and theyve better lives so youre finding a lot of degraded land because nobodys tending to it we are looking at what kinds of farming opportunities are there for young people that are attractive that are the Profit Margins are high that can be done somewhat remotely in that you know this is not high intensive farming doesnt need machinery and is organics. So one of the crops that is doing very well this cheer wow this is incredible yeah this is where it happens is that the magic happens you know what i think is 1st of all what im really excited about is that you have restored this landscape that was just going to seed and that this not only the restored the landscape that it is productive but youre not seeing the soil and starting a whole new incredible i think for century business yeah its amazing so you just pull the whole thing and. I dont know what the young people who left went to the city and a struggling because theyre not as many opportunities as they had seen and now remembering that their fathers and their mothers have learned that not far away in the rule areas so a number of them express increasingly women are beginning to hire local farmers to plant years seeds. All of the world and interestingly enough in kenya the Profit Margins are really high so just cut it. And yeah thats right. Wow how unfun theyre actually examine that actually are really good this time every time i have done i think we need to bring a group of women to harvest and make something of it so perhaps like a demonstration farm bring them they harvest receipts we talk about what we can do restoring landscapes and this is are now we can begin to grow with young i mean i was talking about the hair on a grid so yeah. We are in the 1st generation that our children have west opportunities it has. For the kids. And now even with Climate Change they say you came here he enjoyed yourselves you live in the planet you left us nothing. Each generation has gotten its a gift and we have this generation. Passionate about the environment. So thats why im saying we are going to have like a forest island where you had the breed so you can follow me and then you place their trees. In the hope that we can for planting of them i mean what does it take to make a transformation we can mount measuring if we could work hard to make sure many of those goals and that empower women empower children come to be the picture that people have been they heads of africa will transform it think its an easy thing it can other countries have done it ok. Within a generation you can transform outcomes to take certain things and i pray that i will be part of that and that my children who were born in the u. K. And come back will be able to say well you know i might just move to africa because its really great you know has many opportunities and its got great weather great people great opportunities to build a life. Here as mine is old and i went to london and i went to Primary School i remember i was playing in the playground i was being bullied because i look so different. And they would laugh at me and theyll be like ok from africa live on treason. And i remember how shocked i was that they would they would speak about the place that i loved and that i missed so much they gave me all of my identity in such derogatory terms that they could not understand the beauty the power the opportunities that i got from those 9 years and that moment i said to myself in my head when will be the day that i wont have to make so many explanations because it will be obvious how which are beautiful how glorious we are all of us on this planet not just africa. We are just one species on this planet just one. We happen to be the most destructive hold the species lets be clear this particle survived with or without us we can destroy ourselves and have an end to show that many planets out there that are uninhabited but still way. So lets have a little humility as to our significance here become extraordinary are a given in thinking that matter with just one species the fact that insects will still be here when its all going to. Be humble lets begin to. Be better stewards of the gifts that weve been given. In response to Global Warming germany is gradually shutting down its coal industry but is it happening fast enough we dont have any time to waste anymore we cant wait so were taking direct action to call for the immediate phase out of culture meat as Climate Change activists challenge communities reliant on the industry for jobs people in power who will win the cold war on aljazeera. One of australias most loved making the us is under threat from an agonizing to say but one country that is dedicating your life deciding what i want to east makes the woman who is proud of the. Fires at an overcrowded migrant camp on the greek i. And of less boss as follows the imposition of new coronavirus restrictions. Of amnesty and this is al jazeera live from also coming up tearing up force allies a better russian opposition politician maria kolesnikov