Helena Gualinga

Helena Gualinga, Ecuador

"There is so much to lose if we don't fight, and so much to gain if we do."

Illustration of a woman with long black hair. She is wearing a large black collar with small orange diamonds and red, white and yellow feathers around the edge with long black earrings with red and white feathers. There are two long horizontal black lines painted on her forehead and four short horizontal black lines painted on the top of her nose, as well as a horizontal black line with six black dots underneath painted away from her eye. She is standing against a pink background with a red sprinkle pattern, and text over the illustration reads, “Helena Gualinga is #SolvingIt.”

Helena Gualinga is a 19-year-old Ecuadorian Indigenous advocate working for climate justice. Helena, who doesn’t identify with the label activist, sees her fight intimately linked with her identity, and with the transgenerational struggle to save and protect her native land. After she participated in COP25 she was disappointed in the outcomes and co-founded Polluters Out, a global youth-led campaign to eliminate the influence of the fossil fuel industry in all aspects of society.

Learn more about how Helena is #SolvingIt on Instagram, and follow us at @DohaDebates.

Lina Al-Tarawneh

“People cannot protect what they do not love.”

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Fatemah Alzelzela

"We are living in one planet, one environment, one land. Saving the environment means that you are going to save the future generation."

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Yusuf Baluch

"We are again on the streets to demand urgent climate action, 'cause we know how it feels to live at the front line of the crisis."

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Vic Barrett

“The climate crisis is a shared experience amongst young people... I’d say for our generation it’s been a lesson in camaraderie, as well as empathy and understanding intersectionality.”

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Xiye Bastida

“That's super important for us to be optimists as climate activists, because it means we believe in our power to change the world.”

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Daphne Frias

“I promise that even if other people aren't speaking about it, they're feeling the same things that you're feeling. They're just waiting on one person to ask them how they feel — and that one person can be you. You can start a revolution.”

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Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim

“There cannot be a solution to combat climate change if it does not include Indigenous people."

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Raslen Jbeli

"It is our duty as children to do anything, no matter the cost, to save our planet and to live in a safer world.”

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Litokne Kabua

"I didn't rise to this challenge for myself... I did it on behalf of [my] community."

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Hajar Khamlichi

"Supporting the movement against climate change is an investment in the future."

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Marie Christina Kolo

“There is this generation of young women who want to fight against this injustice. They are not fighting only against climate change impact, they are fighting for their rights, they are fighting for respect.”

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Joycelyn Longdon

"I feel very proud to be part of Gen Z, and I think we've been forced to become these people because — who else can we push these issues to? It's on us."

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Nyombi Morris

"Our voices can hold decision-makers accountable if we use them well.”

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Joshua Oluwaseyi

“I decided [that] instead of trying to fight the government and the older generation on climate change, I would take a different approach, which is educating my generation on the impacts of their everyday action on the environment.”

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Alicia O'Sullivan

"Laws, policies and strategies all need to be severely refocused if we are going to tackle climate change — and you all have the power to do that."

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Howey Ou

"We dare to challenge the capitalist and consumeristic world. We refuse to be prisoners of injustice.”

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Ridhima Pandey

"If a woman is determined to achieve something, no one can stop her.”

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Anjali Raman-Middleton

"One of the reasons I wanted to start this campaign is because I live in a highly polluted area, which is also predominantly people of color. And I realized the injustice in this and wanted to do something about it."

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Disha Ravi

“The climate crisis is our reality. We’re striking for our survival.”

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Shaama Sandooyea

“Profits shouldn’t go before people, the economy shouldn’t go before the environment — because that’s the planet, and planet means life.”

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Catalina Silva

"[Young people are] direct agents of change, because we know that no one is going to give us the future we dream of."

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Mitzi Jonelle Tan

"Ask questions, educate yourself, empower yourself and turn that into action because we need you.”

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Amelia Telford

“It is not only strategic and important [that] we work with people who are directly impacted by climate change, but it is also immoral if we don’t.”

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Artemisa Xakriaba

“I can see a future where we can make a difference, but for that we must be listened to and respected."

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Joelle Zgheib

"Young people are very powerful, especially when they have the anger to make a change."

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