#RiseUp Celebrating Resilience

Saoi O’Connor (18), Climate Activist, Ireland  

On the 11th January 2019, then 16 year old Saoi O’Connor sat alone outside Cork City Hall with a sign emblazoned with the message: ‘The Emperor Has No Clothes’. It was the first of many cold Friday mornings on the streets of Cork City for Saoi. Since then, Saoi has been organising for global climate justice both nationally and internationally with the global Fridays for Future movement. The climate strikers highlight the climate crisis and the existential threat it poses, as well as the aspects of the crisis such as justice and equity, which are often overlooked. Since the pandemic has made large gatherings impossible, climate strikers have continued to organise both digital actions and smaller, covid safe demonstrations. Currently, Saoi is working full time on organising for the next global climate strikes and towards the UN Climate Change Conference in November.

Illustrated by Tara O’Brien 

Nzambi Matee (29), Social Entrepreneur & Engineer, Kenya  

Nzambi Matee is a 29-year-old engineer and social entrepreneur based in Nairobi, Kenya. In 2017, Nzambi began experimenting in her mother’s back yard to find a way to repurpose discarded plastic waste which plagued the streets of her neighbourhood in Nairobi. After a year of trials and experimentation, she came up with a solution to convert plastic waste into lightweight, low cost, durable bricks that are stronger than concrete. In 2020 Nzambi was named a Young Champion of the Earth by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), which awards seed funding to the world’s most promising environmentalists.

Illustrated by Tara O’Brien 

Vanessa Nakate (24), Climate Activist, Uganda  

Vanessa Nakate is a young climate activist credited with bringing the Fridays for Future movement to Uganda, East Africa. In 2020, Vanessa made headlines when she was cropped from a press photograph taken with her all-white climate activist peers, including Greta Thunberg, at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. Vanessa spoke up about the feeling of being ‘erased’ from a movement - and has since continued to make news as one of the most prominent African voices on climate change. Vanessa is the founder of the Rise Up Climate Movement, which aims to amplify the voices of activists from Africa, and the BBC selected her as one of its 100 Women of 2020.

Illustrated by Nikita Abuya 

Nina Gualinga (27), Climate & Indigenous Rights Activist, Ecuador  

Growing up in the Amazon Rainforest in Ecuador, Nina Gualinga understood the threat faced by her community, the Kichwa Indigenous People of Sarayaku. An Argentine oil company, backed by the Ecuadorian government, began exploiting the community’s land against their will when she was 8 years old. A legal battle ensued and at the age of 18, Nina found herself representing the youth of Sarayaku at the final hearing of the case. Today, Nina is a prominent indigenous rights and environmental activist, speaking out against oil, mining and logging industries and advocating for the rights of indigenous peoples around the world. In 2018 Nina was awarded the WWF International President’s Youth Award in recognition of her activist work.

Illustrated by Viktoria Spokojna 

Aisling Byrne (27), Entrepreneur, Sustainable Fashion Activist and founder of Nuw, Ireland  

Aisling had always loved fashion but hated that it came with a human and environmental cost. While at university Aisling spent time in India with Suas where she was struck by the dire conditions of workers in the garment industry. It was 2013 - the same year as the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, where 1,134 garment workers lost their lives. When she returned to Ireland, Aisling decided she wanted to take action and began developing the idea for Nuw. Nuw is an app for swapping pre-loved fashion, building community while keeping clothes in circulation for longer. Aisling has been listed as one of Ireland’s 30 under 30 (2018), raised £600k in funding and has grown the Nuw app and community across Ireland and the UK.

Illustrated by Viktoria Spokojna 

Eileen Flynn (31), First Traveller to have a seat in the Oireachtas, Ireland 

Eileen Flynn grew up on a Travellers halting site in Ballyfermot, Dublin, one of 9 children in the family. Her mother died when she was ten years old, and she struggled in school due to her dyslexia and rebellious nature. Despite the challenges she faced, she and her twin sister became the first members of her community to reach third level education in 2008. After university, Eileen became an active campaigner and community worker and has campaigned tirelessly on housing, marriage equality, anti-racism and abortion rights. In June 2020, Eileen made history by becoming the first Traveller ever nominated as a Senator by An Taoiseach. As Senator, Eileen pledged to be a ‘unique voice for those at the very edge of society.’

Illustrated by Béibhínn McCarthy 

Alex Kofi Donker (29), founder of LGBT+ Rights, Ghana  

Growing up, Alex Kofi Donker struggled to accept himself. Being Gay in Ghana was considered a crime - one resulting in criminalisation and even death. Throughout his teenage years, Alex worked hard to suppress his sexuality, and it was only at university that he finally began to accept himself. In July 2018 he founded LGBT+ Rights Ghana, an organisation aiming to provide a safe space for lesbian, gay and queer people. In February 2021, Ghanaian security forces raided and shut down the organisation’s newly opened support centre, forcing Alex and his colleagues into hiding. Despite facing threats of attacks and arrest, Alex and his colleagues are determined in their drive to be the first openly LGBTQ+ support organisation registered in Ghana.

Illustrated by Viktoria Spokojna 

Disabled Women Ireland (DWI), Ireland  

Throughout 2018, a number of disabled women and non-binary people began to come together to share their frustration with the discourse in the lead up to the Repeal the Eighth referendum - whereby disabled people found themselves regularly being spoken about but not spoken to. Organising largely via Twitter, they decided to join forces to found an all-island movement, and on 11th May 2018, Disabled Women Ireland was officially launched. Today, DWI are the only dedicated organisation advocating for the rights of self-identified women, girls and non-binary/queer/gender non-conforming people with disabilities in Ireland. Collectively, they work to break down the barriers which marginalise and isolate disabled people for the benefit of all.

Illustrated by Neave Alouf 

Louisamay Hanrahan, founder, Lets Help & Let’s Match Mums, Ireland  

At the beginning of the pandemic, Louisamay set up a volunteer group to support people at the frontlines of the pandemic. Following a request for items to be delivered to those seeking asylum and living in Direct Provision, the idea for a new social enterprise - ‘Lets Help’ - was born. To date, they have made over 70 donation drops and donated over €150,000 worth of items. More recently, Louisamay founded ‘Let’s Match Mums’, an initiative connecting mothers in Direct Provision with other mothers of children of a similar age. The initiative enables parents to pass on high quality and appropriate toys, nappies and other baby equipment directly to parents living in Direct Provision. The initiative has been hugely successful with over 2,000 mothers being matched to date.

Illustrated by Béibhínn McCarthy 

Black and Irish, Ireland  

Black and Irish began as an Instagram page in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd in the US in 2020. Founded by former Student Union presidents Boni Odoemene and Leon Diop, along with Femi Bankole and Amanda Ade, the platform sought to give voice to Black and mixed-race experiences, as well as share the struggles of growing up as a minority in Ireland. In just over a year, their following has grown to over 50,000 on Instagram and they have launched their very own Black and Irish podcast, commissioned by RTE, exploring issues around racism, identity and Irishness. Collectively, the team behind Black and Irish have helped to open up a space for new, refreshing and compelling conversations to take place around race, Irishness and what it means to belong.

Illustrated by Béibhínn McCarthy 

Ifrah Ahmed (32), FGM activist and campaigner, Somalia/Ireland  

Ifrah was born in Mogadishu, Somalia and underwent enforced female genital mutilation (FGM) as a child at the hands of a family member. At the age of 17, following the outbreak of war in 2006, Ifrah fled Somalia and was eventually granted asylum in Ireland. Since then, Ifrah has become one of the world’s leading campaigners against FGM. In 2010, at the age of 21, she established The Ifrah Foundation, an organisation devoted to ending the practice of female genital mutilation around the world, while in 2012, she succeeded in the establishment of legislation banning FGM in Ireland. She was the inspiration for the film ‘A Girl from Mogadishu’, an Irish-Belgian film documenting her life released in 2019.

Illustrated by Nikita Abuya 

#MeToo Movement, Global  

The Me Too (or #MeToo) movement took the world by storm in 2017 following the widespread sexual abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein. It grew into a powerful social movement against sexual abuse and sexual harassment. Similar to other social justice movements based upon breaking silence, the purpose of “Me Too” was to empower individuals who had experienced sexual assault by building empathy and solidarity through the act of publicly speaking out. The phrase ‘Me Too’ was originally coined by Tarana Burke in 2006. In October 2017, Alyssa Milano encouraged using the hashtag to reveal the extent of sexual harassment in workplaces, communities and societies across the world.

Illustrated by Viktoria Spokojna 

Movement to Repeal the Eighth Amendment, Ireland  

On 25th May 2018, 66.4% of the population of Ireland voted in the referendum to Repeal the Eighth Amendment, which asserted that the right to life of an unborn foetus was equal to the right to life of its pregnant mother. In practice, the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution prohibited women from accessing safe and legal abortion services in Ireland, forcing thousands of women to travel abroad each year to access reproductive health services denied to them at home. The success of the Repeal the Eighth movement depended to a large extent on young people who came out in their hundreds of thousands to speak up, knock on doors, and appeal for a more compassionate Ireland where women are granted the freedom to choose. 

Illustrated by Tara O’Brien 

Candice Chirwa (25), Menstruation Activist, South Africa  

Candice Chirwa is a young South African speaker, academic and ‘menstruation activist’, on a mission to end period poverty and change the disempowering narratives around menstruation. As the self-proclaimed “Minister of Menstruation”, Candice works to destigmatise myths that linger around periods and support young women to not only accept, but embrace, their bodies. Periods are still taboo in many parts of the world and an estimated 30% of girls in South Africa miss school each month as a result of both stigma and period poverty. Chirwa started her award-winning nonprofit organization Qrate in 2018, which hosts workshops in schools and organisations focused on ending the shame and stigma associated with menstruation.

Illustrated by Neave Aouf  

Sonita Alizadeh (25), Rapper & activist on Child Marriage, Afghanistan  

Sonita Alizadeh grew up in Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban. At the age of 10, having fled to Iran with her family, her parents unsuccessfully attempted to marry her off to an older man. At the age of 15 they tried to marry her off again, but before it could be finalised, Sonita rebelled. Having taught herself to read and write, Sonita discovered rap music and recorded her own music video, ‘Daughters for Sale’, as a form of protest, where she speaks out powerfully against the injustices of child marriage. The video caught global attention when she uploaded it onto Youtube, and Sonita was invited to the US to study music. Sonita is now an international spokesperson for the rights of girls, was named one of Foreign Policy Magazine’s Global Thinkers of 2015, one of BBC’s 100 Women of 2015, and has been featured by CNN, NPR, BBC, Buzzfeed News, and over 200 publications in 20 countries.

Illustrated by Neave Aouf 

Jay Buntin (19) & Mathew Taylor (19), founders of Pure Mental, Northern Ireland  

Since 1998, over 5,000 people have died by suicide in Northern Ireland. The mental health crisis is hitting young people particularly hard, with 45,000 children and teenagers diagnosed as suffering with a mental health issue at any one time. In 2019, then 17-year-old secondary school students Jay Buntin and Matthew Taylor decided to take action, having witnessed close family members and friends suffer in silence. Together they set up Pure Mental, a group campaigning for greater mental health education among young people and held their first rally in Belfast in 2019. Since then, Pure Mental has gone on to develop toolkits for primary school children as well as lobbying the UK Government to make mental health a priority.

Illustrated by Neave Aouf  

Adam Harris (25), founder of AsIAm, National Autism Charity, Ireland  

Adam Harris is the founder and CEO of AsIAm, Ireland’s National Autism Charity. Adam founded the organisation at 18 years of age based on his own experiences growing up as a young autistic person in Ireland. Today, AsIAm provides support to autistic people and their families, advocates on behalf of the community, and supports public and private sector organisations and communities in becoming inclusive and accessible. Adam is a frequent contributor to media and conferences in Ireland and overseas. He has also sat and advised on many government consultative and policy committees on disability rights and inclusion. From Greystones in Co Wicklow, Adam was appointed to the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission in July 2020.

Illustrated by Nikita Abuya 

Blessing Dada (21), Irish-Nigerian Mental Health activist, Ireland  

Blessing Dada is a 21-year-old Black-Irish, award-winning Mental Health Advocate who is passionate about campaigning for positive mental health among Black and other ethnic minorities. Growing up, Blessing encountered multiple challenges - from chronic illnesses, homelessness and racism. Today, Blessing campaigns for intersectionality around mental health, stigma and discrimination in diverse Irish society, calling for cultural humility in treating and dealing with mental health challenges. She regularly speaks up on social media and in the media about mental health related issues and has been featured on The Selfie Show with Lust for Life, New York Times and Image Magazine. Blessing is involved in numerous organizations, such as a See Change Ambassador and Spun Out Action Panel.

Illustrated by Nikita Abuya  

Geraldine McDonnell (25), Traveller & Mental Health worker, Ireland 

Geraldine is the Traveller Mental Health Community Development Worker in Pavee Point. As a Traveller woman and a mother, Geraldine is committed to ensuring Travellers have equality of access, participation and outcomes in health, including mental health. In July 2021, Geraldine gave an opening address to the Oireachtas, drawing attention to the devastating impact that both the pandemic and hate speech more widely is having on Travellers in Ireland. In her presentation, Geraldine highlighted the disproportionate rates of suicide amongst the Traveller Community- six times the national rate - accounting for 11 per cent of all Traveller deaths. Through her work, Geraldine continues to work towards addressing barriers to mental health services for Travellers in partnership with the HSE. Geraldine is a role model for other young Traveller women and is currently studying Community and Youth Work at Maynooth University.

Illustrated by Tara O’Brien 

Hauwa Ojeifa (29), mental health activist, Nigeria 

In February of 2016, Hauwa Ojeifo considered taking her own life. She had spent much of her early adult years battling extreme mood swings, bouts of exhaustion, fainting spells and poor memory. At the time, she did not realize she was experiencing symptoms of bipolar disorder. Two months after her formal diagnosis, Hauwa founded She Writes Woman, an organisation aiming to give mental health a voice in Nigeria. In a country of over 200 million people, there are less than 250 practicing psychiatrists, and Hauwa wanted to close the gap. She went on to create Safe Place Nigeria, a virtual community for wellness-conscious Nigerians to access digital mental healthcare. In 2020, she became the first woman to testify before the Nigerian parliament on the rights of persons with mental health conditions.

Illustrated by Béibhínn McCarthy