Pan African Youth Summit

A great start for the first ever Pan African Peace and Climate Justice Youth Summit

Fridays for Future, together with some 30 other organizations in Africa, initiated its first Pan African Peace and Climate Justice Youth Summit. It lasted four days, from 27-30 August 2025. It drew over forty activists almost daily, coming from Kenya and Tanzania, plus twenty digital participants from Tunisia, Nigeria, Uganda, People’s Republic of Congo, and South Africa. We share here some of the highlights. The most remarkable successes range , from covering lunches for all on-site participants, to the transmission of events, to garbage clean-up and tree-planting. The talks were dense with pertinent, practical, and helpful information, as shown below, though in a few cases, recordings were not clear. We launched and began spreading a petition in Swahili for Peace and Climate Justice. We trained several attendees on how to use the Action Network platform. We established a more accountable economic structure and weeded out some economic abuse for the summit. We inspired a group in India to consider holding such a similar conference, and translating and disseminating a similar petition. We collected donations to help cover the costs of some attendees, though with more funds we would have been able to increase participation. We inspired many to continue onward with holding a similar event in 2026. We all realized the deep connection between peace and climate justice. When we left, we all felt empowered to organize in our local communities.

In preparation, members of the Peace and Climate Justice (PCJ) team went out and gathered signatures for peace and climate justice, shown in the picture below on the left. Kevin was inspirational.

At the youth summit, on day 2, a time was devoted to clean-up outside, shown on the in the pictures on the right, above and below.

Amazon Theatrics offered fun moments. Many danced during breaks from the talks. And there was a lunch organized for the summit, as shown on the left above.

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Seth Omondi spoke about his journey and the struggles he faced:

“Being born in the ghetto wasn't easy and the desire to be an Artist. Had a lot of struggle and challenges to where I am now. First my parents were not that much supportive and i had to convince them that I can make a living with music. But challenges were drug abuse and the influence with peer pressure coming from friends and neighbors. In the ghetto almost every corner you take there is a drug seller or club so it's hard to stay away from alcohol and drugs. Found myself dealing and in the wrong group and before I know it I landed in jail. I disappointed myself and my parents. But music saved myself when i got out and decided to commit myself to it, that's when I started to gain my parents trust again. Coz now I was in studio recording or on an event or just in the house listening or writing music. Now I had no time for the wrong group coz I was busy, I wanted to be a star. It's not easy making it with music in Kenya.”

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Wicklife Ochieng said:

“I grew up deeply connected to the environment around me. The fields, trees, and fresh air were not just part of my surroundings—they were part of my life. Over the years, I began to notice changes: unpredictable rains, hotter days, polluted rivers, and the quiet disappearance of the birds and insects that once filled my mornings. These small but painful changes opened my eyes to the reality of the climate crisis and how it directly affects our communities.

My path toward climate justice began with a simple realization: climate change is not just an environmental issue—it’s a justice issue. It affects the most vulnerable people first and hardest, especially those who contribute the least to the problem. Families in my community struggling with floods, farmers losing harvests to drought, and children suffering from air pollution became the faces of this crisis for me.

Instead of sitting back, I chose to act. I started by raising awareness among friends and neighbors, encouraging them to reduce waste,plant trees and use cleaner sources of energy where possible. For me climate justice is about protecting both people and planet.”

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The first Pan African Peace and Climate Justice Youth Summit was a success, many great activists met one another, stories were shared, new bonds were forged, and new action plans were made.

For alll the details on the summit download the full pdf here.