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Youth Initiative 4 Climate Action, 70 Bass Street, Brookfields, Freetown (2026)

23/06/2026

Last Saturday, some of our Cohort Two mentees stepped into the heart of two communities that needed their voices Kroo Bay and Kolley Town as part of a powerful community awareness campaign led by Women Environmental Programme Sierra Leone (WEP-SL).

The campaign centred on issues that sit at the core of why we empower young women and girls in the first place: early marriage, the protection of women and girls, and the rights of children in our communities.
These are not abstract policy conversations. They are lived realities for thousands of women and girls across Sierra Leone and our mentees got to stand in the gap, engage directly with community members, and amplify voices that are too often unheard.

We believe deeply that climate justice and gender justice are not separate movements they are deeply intertwined. A community cannot build true resilience to climate shocks while its women and girls remain unprotected, unheard, and undervalued.

We are incredibly grateful to Women Environmental Programme Sierra Leone for extending this invitation to our Cohort Two mentees.

20/06/2026

MEET OUR COHORT TWO MENTEES!

We are thrilled to introduce the 20 young women selected for Cohort Two of the Young Women Climate Mentorship Programme!

Over the next six months, they will receive mentorship, training, field visits, and internship placements as they grow into the next generation of women climate leaders in Sierra Leone.

Swipe through to meet them and join us in cheering them on!
Dreamtown
The Fund for Global Human Rights
C40 Cities
YICA

14/06/2026

We Officially opened the doors to a new chapter of the Young Women Climate Mentorship Programme (YWCMP) as we welcomed our Cohort 2 mentees at our Orientation Session .

YWCMP is a flagship programme of YICA-SL, supported by The Fund for Global Human Rights and Dreamtown designed to equip young women in Sierra Leone with the knowledge, skills, mentorship, and resources to design and lead community-level climate action projects. Through structured mentorship, capacity building, and sub-grant support, the programme is building the next generation of young women climate leaders in Sierra Leone.

The orientation brought together our new cohort of mentees for a full day of learning, connection, and inspiration. The session included an overview of the programme, introductions to their mentors, and an incredible panel session featuring representatives from Cohort 1 who shared their journeys from the first day of mentorship all the way through to implementing their own community climate projects. Their stories of resilience, growth, and impact set a powerful tone for what lies ahead for Cohort 2.

We were deeply honoured to receive a statement from Sallieu Kanu of C40 Cities, who spoke powerfully about the critical role of young women in driving urban climate resilience and the importance of creating spaces where their voices, ideas, and leadership are centred in climate decision-making. His words were a reminder of why programmes like YWCMP are not just important they are necessary.

To our Cohort 2 mentees , today you stepped into a community of changemakers. The journey ahead will challenge you, grow you, and ultimately prepare you to lead climate action in your communities and beyond. We are proud to walk this journey with you.

The future of climate action in Sierra Leone is female.

05/06/2026

Happy World Environment Day!

Today, 5th June 2026, we pause to celebrate the earth that sustains us and recommit to protecting it.

At YICASL, we believe that environmental action is not just a global conversation. It starts in our homes, our schools, and our communities. It starts with a woman who picks up a plant and decides to grow something. It starts with a child who learns that the earth is not just something we live on it is something we are responsible for.

Because when women lead environmental action, communities are transformed. And when children are taught to love and protect the earth from a young age, that love stays with them for life. Climate education is not a luxury it is one of the most powerful tools we have.

Today and every day, YICASL remains committed to putting women and young people at the centre of climate action in Sierra Leone through tree planting, clean-ups, awareness, and education that reaches the next generation before it is too late.
To every woman who has ever planted a tree, cleaned a beach, or taught a child to care for the environment today is for you.

04/06/2026

MEET OUR COHORT TWO MENTEES!

We are honoured to officially introduce the 20 young women selected for Cohort Two of the Young Women Climate Mentorship Program (YWCMP)

Selected through a competitive application process, these young women represent diverse communities, academic backgrounds, and lived experiences across Freetown. Each was chosen for her demonstrated passion for climate action, her leadership potential, and her commitment to creating meaningful, lasting change in her community.

Over the course of six months, Cohort Two mentees will engage in a comprehensive and structured programme that includes one-on-one mentorship with experienced climate professionals, technical training workshops on project design, grant writing, advocacy, and impact communication, climate field visits to connect learning with real-world practice, and internship placements with climate institutions and city partners.
They will also join a growing and permanent network of women climate leaders advancing gender-responsive climate action in Sierra Leone.

Swipe through the flyers to meet each of our Cohort Two mentees and join us in cheering them on. Your words of encouragement mean more than you know let them feel the support of this community as they begin their journey.

The Young Women Climate Mentorship Programme is made possible through the generous support of The Fund for Global Human Rights (through their Legal Empowerment Fund) and Dreamtown

To our Cohort Two mentees, welcome. This programme was built with you in mind, and we are proud to walk this journey alongside you.

28/05/2026

Group 2 Urban Bloom of our Young Women’s Climate Mentorship Programme has successfully completed the second phase of their Urban Farming Project.

During their site visit, the team carried out a thorough assessment of plant growth and project progress, reviewing what is thriving, identifying what needs attention, and documenting the journey of a garden that started as an idea and is becoming something real, something alive, and something that matters.

None of this would have been possible without the continued support of our incredible partners Dreamtown whose belief in these young women and commitment to community-driven solutions has been unwavering from day one, and The Fund for Global Human Rights, whose support continues to make this programme and its impact possible.

YoungWomenClimateAction SierraLeone Freetown WomenLeadClimateAction Dreamtown GlobalFundForHumanRights CommunityResilience GreenFreetown

26/05/2026

Group 4 of our Young Women’s Climate Mentorship Programme has just completed the first phase of their climate project and what they have accomplished is nothing short of remarkable. Working along the coast of Congo Town, they have successfully restored over 2,000 mangroves bringing back one of the most powerful and most threatened ecosystems on our coastline.

Mangroves are not just trees. They are Sierra Leone’s first line of defence against coastal flooding. They are the nurseries where our fish grow. They are the roots that hold our shorelines together when the storms come. Losing them means losing the protection that thousands of coastal communities depend on. Restoring them means giving those communities a fighting chance against the growing impacts of climate change.
These young women understood that. And they acted on it.

26/05/2026

Group 4 of our Young Women’s Climate Mentorship Programme has just completed the first phase of their climate project and what they have accomplished is nothing short of remarkable. Working along the coast of Congo Town, they have successfully restored over 2,000 mangroves bringing back one of the most powerful and most threatened ecosystems on our coastline.

In Sierra Leone and across the world women and girls are disproportionately affected by climate change. They are the ones who walk further when the water sources dry up. They are the ones whose livelihoods collapse when the fish disappear from degraded coastlines. They are the ones who rebuild homes after floods, replant after failed harvests, and hold communities together when the climate takes everything. Women do not just experience the climate crisis they live inside it every single day. And yet, they remain among the most underrepresented voices in the rooms where climate decisions are made.

That is exactly why women must lead initiatives like this one. Not as a gesture. Not as a quota. But because women bring a depth of lived experience, community knowledge, and long-term thinking to environmental work that is irreplaceable. When a woman restores a mangrove, she is not just planting a tree ,she is protecting the coastline her children will grow up on. She is safeguarding the fisheries her community depends on. She is thinking seven generations ahead.

Mangroves are Sierra Leone’s first line of defence against coastal flooding.
They are the nurseries where our fish grow. They are the roots that hold our shorelines together when the storms come. Restoring them is not just an environmental act it is an act of community protection, of love for the land, and of defiance against a crisis that has taken too much from too many.

This project was made possible through the generous support of our incredible partners Nature for Mangroves, who brought their expertise and passion for coastal ecosystem restoration, Dreamtown, who believed in these young women early and provided the seed funding that made it all possible, and The Fund for Global Human Rights through their Legal Empowerment Fund, whose support helped bring this vision to life.

19/05/2026

This week, Group One of our Young Women’s Climate Mentorship Programme cohort 1 completed their post-mentorship activity and they did not disappoint.

The group facilitated a two-day workshop with the environmental club at THE DR. JUNE HOLST- RONESS ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN SCHOOL , engaging 10 students across different grade levels and 3 teachers to strengthen the school’s green club and build capacity for their school garden.

Together, they planted vegetables in a vertical garden space and flowers in recycled tyres repurposed as flower pots turning a simple school compound into a living classroom for climate action.

This is what post-mentorship looks like at YICASL.
Not a certificate. Not a graduation photo.
Real work. Real impact. Real communities transformed.

We are incredibly proud of Group One for showing up, rolling up their sleeves, and proving that young women are not just the future of climate action they are the present.

This initiative is supported with seed funding by Dreamtown. And The Fund for Global Human Rights

Thanks to Hassan Hindolo Senesie for providing technical support throughout the implementation process of the project

05/05/2026

Why Early Warning Systems Change Everything!

In informal settlements like Portee Wharf, disasters do not announce themselves with enough time for formal systems to respond. By the time a national alert is issued, water is already in the house.
That is why community-led Early Warning Systems are not just useful they are life-saving. When trained women within the community can identify early signs of flooding, activate communication protocols, and mobilise neighbours before the worst hits, lives are protected. Children reach higher ground. Elderly residents are not left behind. Families have time to move what little they have.

An early warning system that lives inside a community that is maintained by the community is infinitely more responsive than one that depends entirely on outside institutions. It does not need a signal. It does not need a government dispatch. It just needs people who are trained, trusted, and ready.

That is exactly what Group 3 of our Young Women Climate Mentorship Programme is building in Portee Wharf, Wellington.
Over three intensive days, Sydnella, Isatu, Alma, Mabinty, and Ismatu delivered a comprehensive disaster preparedness and early warning systems training with 10 women from the heart of the Portee Wharf community. This was not a one-hour session or a single workshop. It was three full days of learning, practising, and preparing because when it comes to disaster response, depth of knowledge is everything.

Across the three days, participants were equipped with the knowledge and practical skills to identify early warning signs of flooding and other climate hazards specific to their community, understand disaster risk and why Portee Wharf is particularly vulnerable, respond effectively in the critical moments before, during, and after a disaster strikes, communicate quickly and clearly within their community when a hazard is approaching, and coordinate evacuation and protection measures for the most vulnerable children, the elderly, and households closest to the waterline.

These 10 women are not passive beneficiaries. They are now Community Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Champions in training , the first line of defence for a community that has historically had no formal protection structure at all.

Because here is the truth: in communities like Portee Wharf, you cannot wait for help to arrive from outside. The response has to come from within. And now, for the first time, Portee Wharf has women who are trained, organised, and ready to lead that response.

To Sydnella Pratt , Isatu, Alma, Mabinty, and Ismatu you did not just run a training. You planted the seeds of a community protection system that could save lives for years to come. We are deeply proud of everything you have built.

Thank you to our partners Dreamtown for supporting these mentees with seed funding to create this impact

The Fund for Global Human Rights (through their Legal Empowerment Fund), for making this work possible.

Youth Initiative 4 Climate Action

23/06/2026

20/06/2026

14/06/2026

05/06/2026

04/06/2026

28/05/2026

26/05/2026

26/05/2026

19/05/2026

05/05/2026

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