Alumna Wins Prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for Advocacy Campaign
For several years, Gloria Majiga-Kamoto, a 30-year-old Malawian environmental activist and 2019 Fellowship Alumna, has fought against some of Malawi’s largest plastic manufacturers to bring an end to single-use plastics. She first became interested in the issue when the goats that her organization provided to subsistence farmers started dying because they were ingesting plastic waste. With the help of other activists and civil society groups, Gloria spearheaded a grassroots campaign that fought to reinstitute a national plastic ban in the country.
How many people will experience that kind of loss and that kind of sense of hopelessness in terms of their own livelihood because we are not able to control the situation? I thought that, as a country, there has to be more that we can do.”
Gloria Majiga-Kamoto, 2019 Fellowship Alumna, Malawi
After a protracted legal battle with plastic manufacturers, the Malawi Supreme Court upheld a national ban on the production, importation, distribution, and use of thin plastics in July 2019. Gloria’s fierce advocacy led to the shutting down of three plastic firms in 2020 by the Malawian government and as a result of her grassroots campaign, she has been awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for Africa.
Learn more about Gloria’s work in this article from CNN and this article from National Public Radio. Learn more about Gloria and her work in the official release from The Goldman Environmental Prize.
Next Story
Morine Wairimu Mwangi
2019 Fellowship Alumna, Kenya