Ineza Umuhoza Grace

"Rwandan children need the Loss and Damage Fund because children are vulnerable. When you see what happened in Rwanda in May this year, schools were destroyed by disasters and children were much more affected. If the Loss and Damage Fund is there, they recover faster. The fund could help the country avoid heavy debt in rehabilitating the damages ."

"I am honoured and grateful because it is like a simple highlight and recognition of how much the world is ready to understand and take risks in investing in working with today’s generation."

"e are the generation that is past the phase of only blaming leaders because we are also pacing the solution."

"We are living in an era where climate change is interlinked with every sector, especially sustainable economic development sectors for communities, but then we are not having the same urgency of action in the political phase."

"The future for us is going to be achieved if we address the climate crisis to the full extent of its magnitude, that it is happening right now."

"We realised that, although people were being recommended to stay indoors, for some of us it was not the case. That was the same year that Rwanda experienced serious flooding, and people were not able to stay indoors to protect themselves from Covid-19."

"Also, minor research I did in 2016 showed that girls graduating in hospitality and hotel management did not have jobs because they do not know where to turn to. I thought of a sustainable and reliable project that can connect the two parties and create an open platform for the youth and help working parents feel better at work."

"When I finished secondary school, I had the option to go for civil engineering or water and environmental engineering but when I searched the Internet and saw the global wars of climate change, I realised that environmental engineers are the ones able to find solutions and that is how I opted to be an environmental engineer."

"During my course, I realised that in terms of land neutrality, Rwanda can do more, and that was my inspiration. The land environmental engineer is one that can take care of the environment and community because both of them can live in harmony in order to attain sustainable development."

"UNCCD stepped forward in opening a door for the youth around the globe in order to mitigate and adapt to this by also protecting the environment for us and the future generation."

"I am working hand-in-hand with the youth who graduated from University of Rwanda to design the project which will have a positive impact on the environment and the agricultural sector. This is the starting point in the process, to have more youth fighting for suitable land management in the region"

"In rural areas, for example, people just know that Rwanda is a beautiful country but they do not know how to keep the land sustainable, and how to practice more in conserving the environment. This is a big challenge because rural people are more vulnerable to global warming but they don’t know how to protect themselves from that."

"From my small research I realised that we do not have adequate information, like how desertification is affecting Rwanda, how we respond to this, how much are we saving or losing, the soil erosion going on and so forth."

"We engage with other youth through a series of events organised in schools; that is, capacity enhancement in different areas and elevating our country’s experience beyond our borders to advocate for proper youth inclusion in climate action."

"We work closely with the government on a vast level that allows us not only to augment our voice as active stakeholders but also by equipping us with a safe space to learn how to reshape our vision and engagement while receiving capacity enhancement platforms that help us contour an enhanced future."

"Through her unwavering determination and mobilization efforts, Ineza continues to inspire a new generation of environmental activists, empowering them to create meaningful change in their communities and beyond."

"The ceiling disappeared, and I remember being woken up and feeling like I was drowning because of the rain."