“A child should want to make a difference. A child should feel the need to work towards creating environmental change.” This is Sagarika Sriram’s credo and mission, an Emirati champion of Children’s Environmental Rights who has been included in the BBC 100 Women List for 2023.
Adults need to recognize that children have a voice. Age is often used as a factor to dismiss valid points made by many Gen Z activists, but young people have the wisdom to have a say in the policies and the rules that are in place.
Sagarika Sriram is the 19-year-old Founder of Kids4abetterworld, a platform educating more than 100,000 youths globally to drive sustainability projects in their communities. Her love for animals and nature sparked her passion for environmentalism. At only 11 years old, using her knowledge of coding, Sagarika created an innovative “Kids for Kids” technology platform. Through online and offline workshops on sustainability, recycling, and waste management, she educates, motivates, and activates children toward sustainable living, positively impacting climate change.
In this exclusive interview for Community Index Magazine, Sagarika talks about all the significant reasons why it is vital to work towards mobilizing climate education across all curriculums and schools.
1. Children and future generations are the worst affected by the gravity of climate change. Yet, most children are not educated about the issue or invited to attend climate change discussions. How does Kids4abetterworld drive awareness of sustainability?
Kids4abetterworld works to help children understand the basic concepts of climate change through interactive sustainable workshops. These are combined with recycling projects, “trash to treasure” workshops, or beach and desert clean-ups in the community. Most of our material is designed to teach children 8 to 16 years old about climate change and what they can do to reverse it in their own homes and communities.
For example, we offer guidance on how they could grow food at home, plant trees, save water and energy, stop using single-use plastic or collect recyclables. All these activities help children monitor their impact on the environment and work towards creating change.
2. You are creating your own system of “inspirational change makers” because, from a young age, you realized it’s impossible to connect with an issue if you don’t fully understand it. Are children curious about sustainability topics or do you find it challenging to get their attention? What role does inspiration play?
I believe that most children are curious about the changes happening in our world today – why there is flooding in some areas and drought in others, why there are strange weather occurrences more frequently and why there is a scarcity of food and water in different parts of the world. We have to make them understand that a lot of these issues are related to global warming.
Peer to peer education, interactive workshops and a practical approach to climate education is helping children understand that we have the ability to make a difference as we are the future generation. Technology has made it possible for us to connect and collaborate easily with each other and inspire more children all over the world to join our efforts.
3. How can parents create a safe space for their children to raise their concerns and help them become future sustainable leaders?
Parents need to lead by example and raise children in an environment where protecting the climate is at the forefront of everything they do. This will help children engage in sustainable practices at a young age: they will automatically recycle and reuse, take part in gardening, turn off taps and lights, or eat fresh and natural.
We also need to listen to children when they voice their concerns. Parents should be able to discuss sensitive issues like climate change with their children in ways that are age-appropriate and help them respond and take action in their own daily lives. This approach helps children feel more in control of the situation rather than helpless in the face of climate change.
Children must also be encouraged to share their experiences widely so more youth can learn from their efforts. This is the path toward sustainable leadership: educating, motivating and activating each other to create change.
4. Education is the foundation of everything. How much do you think alternative ways of education contribute to children’s sense of responsibility? What innovative ways of explaining they all have a role in shaping our future have you discovered?
It is important to take a proactive approach to education and recognize that climate change is not just limited to lessons in the classroom. It is also about making sure children incorporate eco-friendly activities in their daily lives and make sustainable living the norm. Lessons need to be made far more interactive so children also have a chance to jointly explore solutions to fight climate change. In the digital age, we have the opportunity to use tech for good to inform, educate and motivate children towards being more environmentally friendly.
I have discovered the power of collaboration through social media by creating an entire network of changemakers who are fighting climate change in their own communities all over the world. By using a peer-based education model for young children, we have allowed them to connect with the subject in a more direct and fearless way for a better understanding of the complexity of the climate change topic.
This exclusive interview was first published in the bilingual yearbook Community Index Magazine no. 6, published in February 2025. You can browse it here: https://communityindex.ro/community-index-magazine-2024/
