Graphic Courtesy of Sofia Savid ‘24
By Helen Gloege ’23
Staff Writer
Winnie Cheche is a 31-year-old climate activist from Nairobi, Kenya. Cheche has many titles, including “conservationist, environmental blogger, climate activist, volunteer and Communication Lead at Kenya Environmental Action Network,” according to GlobalConscience.world.
In an article Cheche wrote for Global Citizen, she said she was drawn to activism due to her upbringing near “Lake Nakuru National Park, in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley,” which exposed her to wildlife and the dangers of wildlife poaching. Cheche saw “how poaching caused a decrease in certain wildlife” and wanted to do something about it.
Within environmental activism, Cheche’s passion and specialty is conservation. “I am ready to do whatever I can to ensure that future generation[s] get to see animals,” Cheche said in an article from Palm Oil Detective.
Her activism did not start with standing outside government buildings or staging protests, but “online with tweets and posts on matters concerning wildlife welfare and climate change issues,” as outlined by Greenpeace. In Feb. 2018, Cheche started a blog that later developed into a website, which she uses as a tool for her activism and outreach work, according to Global Citizen. Her website and blog posts aim to “break down issues … in the simplest terms” in an attempt to reach more people, Greenpeace reported. Her website provides information on climate change, climate action, conservation and travel. Cheche points to activism as what “helped her find her voice again,” according to Greenpeace.
Cheche is beginning to see the impacts of climate change in her home country of Kenya, which has “been experiencing floods, droughts and landslides” as well as “unpredictable weather patterns,” she mentioned in a Greenpeace article.
Cheche wants government leaders to “acknowledge that climate change is already here with us,” she wrote in an article for Global Citizen. One of Cheche’s larger goals is to “enable or give humans resources to fall in love with our planet and wildlife,” as described by GlobalConscience.World.