Vote Brighton Kaoma for African Region 'Young Champion of the Earth' prize

By Winston Muleba JR 

Meet the 30 regional finalists for the 'Young Champions of the Earth prize'. Each one of them offer an impressive array of scalable, innovative and potentially impactful solutions to some of the world’s most pressing environmental challenges. 

Click HERE to vote Brighton Kaoma as African Region Young Champion of the Earth. 

Brighton Kaoma is a 23-year-old Zambian environmental activist and social entrepreneur. 

He's passionate about inspiring people to live in harmony with nature.

Brighton is the co-founder of Agents of Change - a youth radio and leadership organization. 

He won the 2015 Queen's Young Leaders Award from Queen Elizabeth II at the Buckingham Palace in the UK. 

In 2016, World Wide Fund for Nature honoured him with its top International Accolade, the “WWF International Presidents Award”. 

Brighton is also a UNICEF Climate Ambassador, Mandela Washington Fellow, Royal Commonwealth Society Fellow, and an Alumnus of both the Cambridge University and the University of Delaware. 

The concept of his idea suggest that Children are good at radio. Radio is good for children and listening to children on the radio is good for everyone. So how is it that children have been forgotten in environmental advocacy through radio programming? 

He notes that in Zambia, children represent roughly 40% of the population, yet less than 1% of broadcasting on climate change and the environment concerns them. 

“The strong institutional basis for inclusion of children’s rights in the national climate regime has yet to align with an emerging mechanism for championing children’s issues in the sector. For example, Zambia’s National Adaptation Programmes of Action rarely, if ever, reference the unique vulnerabilities of children. 

“Similarly, they often fail to draw on the practical knowledge and capacity for meaningful change that children offer. Voice4Climate envisions building a Kids FM Radio Station to create opportunities for child-led issue-based dialogue, participation, active citizenship, and advocacy on Climate Change,” he states. 

Informed by your opinion, Regional Juries will in early September select two “World Finalists” per world region. A Global Jury will then select six Young Champions of the Earth.