ITRI Visionary Young Leaders Awards 2022 Recipients
Amba-Rose Atkinson, Australia
In 2021, Amba-Rose contributed to the discussion paper “Climate change and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health” published by the Lowitja Institute. Amba-Rose also facilitates First Nations cultural safety workshops for cross-sectorial organizations. Amba-Rose affirms that any progress in the space cannot be achieved without First Nations Peoples, and is passionate about honoring and embedding First Nations voices and knowledge in environmental, climate, and health discussions and solutions. In August this year, Amba-Rose will be presenting her research at the 2022 National Tribal and Indigenous Climate Conference in Minnesota, Turtle Island, and has been nominated by the Climate and Health Alliance (Australia) to attend the Conference of the Parties (COP27).
Amba-Rose Atkinson is a proud Gumbaynggirr nyami from the mid-north coast of NSW. Amba-Rose is currently undertaking her PhD titled “Understanding the relationship between the health of wajaarr (Country) and of First Nations waarru-biin (peoples), and its contribution towards environmental, climate, and health solutions” at the University of Queensland. Her work will explore with community the nexus between country, climate, and health. Amba-Rose was confirmed in March 2022 and is now in her second year; focusing on ethics and commencing primary data collection. In addition to her PhD, Amba-Rose supports a cohort of First Nations PhD students and teaches first year First Nations students at the University of Melbourne.
Alagie Manneh, The Gambia
Alagie returned to his village to deepen his path in socioeconomic development and environmental conservation inspired by participating in Ecovillage Design Education. He has since participated in important local and international courses like Conflict Transformation (in Gambia), Designs for Sustainability (platform for networking with youth and women, igniting interest in ethics towards Earth care, and people care for fFindhorn, Scotland), Permaculture Design and Permaculture Convergence (London UK). As a result, he set up the Permaculture Gambia (Facebook) uture generations. He is recognized nationally and works for IMVF TEKKI-FII project (www.imvf.org) as an adviser to improve the economic prospects of youth by promoting meaningful employment and income opportunities.
Alagie Manneh is an environmentalist, permaculturist, facilitator, and an entrepreneur in The Gambia. He founded Sustainability Centre Farm to demonstrate and teach youth, women and farmers, sustainable farming for resilience in the face of globalization and climate change. His work has contributed extensive expertise in community development, rural livelihoods and environmental conservation in Gambia and southern Senegal (Cassamance). He played a pivotal role in organizing the first Permaculture Convergence in Senegal, which was held in the sacred forest of Kafountine as a call for its protection.
Javed Omardeen, Trinidad and Tobago
Javed Omardeen is a farmer, chocolate maker and beekeeper who develops models by which rural people can make sustainable livelihoods. Inspired by nature from a young age, he took up the occupation of organic agroforestry as a way to provide chemical free food to people while giving a home to the native flora and fauna.
Javed has worked for the past six years with a small farming NGO based in the rural community where he lives. The dominant narratives make farmers feel they have to destroy the environment in order to make a living. Understanding their genuine needs, he works with communities to empower them with alternatives to this model.
As a project manager, Javed uses beekeeping and its downstream products to provide one such alternative. He oversees the implementation of a UNDP funded project, set out to expand the NGO’s beekeeping initiatives. Javed's unending love for nature impels him to search for new ways to bring harmony between people and the natural world. Javed is a student of the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and tries to learn how to implement their deeper spiritual practices into his environmental work. He would like in the future to volunteer in Auroville, India as a way to learn about sustainability and nature-oriented education models that are based on Sri Aurobindo’s spiritual teachings.
Eugenia Figueroa, Argentina
Eugenia Figueroa was born in 1994 in the mountainous region of Mendoza, Argentina. She is a spokesperson for the local indigenous communities and communicates directly with the local government on policy and issues of indigenous rights. She is the first Indigenous advisor to the region’s government and in 2021 I served as the official advisor for Indigenous Peoples for the National Deputy of Mendoza and was in charge of formulating bills related to Intercultural Health and Adequate Housing for communities. She also serves her community through projects that strengthen agricultural practices that promote the health of the land and people.
She organizes discussions and meetings among the indigenous communities in the Mendoza province, focusing on issues related to gender and strengthening cultural identity of the indigenous people of the region. In the future, she plans to begin studies in Social Communication at the National University of Cuyo. Obtaining higher education will allow her to better understand how to strengthen the network of the many remote native villages in Mendoza. Creating such a network will help each community to address important issues together drawing on the local knowledge held by many of the elders.
Bodhisatwa Chaudhuri, India
Bodhisatwa Chaudhuri completed a master’s degree in neuroscience from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in 2018. During this period in Bangalore, he worked with IYCN (India Youth Climate Network) to conduct workshops on climate change action. He took part in the University of Mysore’s project on the ecology of the Nicobar long-tailed macaque, which is a protected sub-species of monkey endemic to the Nicobar group of islands of India and was stationed at Great Nicobar island which hosts a UNESCO designated biosphere reserve, for a year (2019-2020). His work involved rigorous field observations and long-term engagement with the local community of farmers on the island.
He is a teaching fellow at the Ashoka University. Currently, Bodhisatwa has been documenting biodiversity in Patuli, near Kolkata on biodiversity conservation in urban areas for climate action and to transform Patuli into an eco-township.The region was a fertile wetland ecosystem in the past and a major distributary of the river Ganges, that still hosts waterbodies and green areas which are rich in biodiversity. Through dialogue with local community leaders, he is working to ensure protection of avenue trees and waterbodies in the area. He has been documenting and writing on his experiences and stories on the web of life to share more widely in the near future.
Dr. Fahima Mokhtarzarda, Afghanistan
Dr. Fahima Mokhtarzarda was born in Herat City. She graduated with honors from medical school in 2015 and pursued specialty training in women’s surgery. After a year as a surgical intern, she spent a year teaching women’s health at Aria Apollo Hospital and passed her board exams to earn her Obs. She trained four more years at Riabea Hospital in Kabul. She joined the Afghanistan Civil Society Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition and serves as health manager and coordinator at the Afghan Institute of Learning where she oversees expansion of education and training programs for young women, opening health clinics around the country.
She ensured these clinics remained open even during the time of the government collapse. These clinics provide free health education to women across the country as well as training women to hold positions of leadership in their communities. She is a volunteer at the Women and Babies Hospital in Herat. Even at her young age, those who work with Dr. Fahima remark on the high standards of ethics and care she offers her surrounding community. She has earned the love and respect from the women she works with who know of the sacrifices she made to become a doctor and the continued dedication she offers women and children in Afghanistan.
Vibhuti Aggarwal, India
Vibhuti Aggarwal is a founding member of the India Youth Alliance, and since 2012 and has worked on issues related to community living towards creating greater harmony with self, others and nature. She designs and implements immersive leadership journeys like Earth Shastra and alumni community spaces for continued leadership support. Vibhuti is a former Teach for India fellow, who continued her commitment to education through her work at Sri Ram Ashram, Haridwar, and Shikshantar Andolan, Udaipur. She also contributes to Yes! Jams and Learning Societies among others. After more than a decade of her work in social change, she has recently shifted to a small city in Uttarakhand state of India to dedicate her time and skills to bringing about a change at a local level. Her learning journeys with young people address issues such as climate change, socio-economic inequity and spiritual disconnection and provide spaces for young people to nurture leadership from within.
Earth-Shastra takes thirty young changemakers from across India on a 9-day immersive journey – to slow down and make sense of the climate emergency and converging crises (rising economic inequity, political polarization etc.) of our times. Vibhuti is also Co-Creator for a program called Immersion in Food Politics, India. A 7-day residential advanced journey on Politics of Food for leaders who have either chosen an area in the food sector like agriculture, health, farming, rural development or who are passionate at deepening their understanding. Through the 7 days of living on a farm outside Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India where explore the head, heart and hand of food. Pedagogy ranging from farm work to community cooking, to field visits to learning sessions to interact with various mentors is aimed at looking at the issue of food democracy, the secrets of processed food and the green revolution and understanding localization firsthand.