Becoming a Conduit of Climate Justice

Natalie Sifuma's smile beams through the monitor. No stranger to meeting new people, her contagious positive energy eases us into our conversation.

“I’m quitting my current job, so I’m quite nervous!”

Her confession was certainly unexpected. However, this life update feels like something to be celebrated. “It’s time to breathe life into Sisters in Climate,” Natalie says.

Sisters in Climate is a community project born from an International Women’s Day event in 2023 that Natalie hosted. When she encountered a stumbling block in setting up the event, she thought, “Why not call my two sisters?” She reached out to two of her good friends to support her. She thought they would bring their unique strengths to the project.

And as Natalie imagined, her sisters came through. The three ended up hosting a fulfilling event that would significantly alter the course of Natalie’s life.

“The event brought together about 30 women to mainly talk about how we can adopt more sustainable lifestyles. So we talked about ESG and fashion,” Natalie recalls. “At the end of the programme, I remember one lady casually asking, ‘Where do we meet guys who live environmentally conscious lifestyles?’ which made us start to think about how to form community beyond the event.”

This question sparked the emergence of a community and a sisterhood. Sisters in Climate, which started as an intimate WhatsApp group of Natalie and her friends sharing resources for sustainable living, is now a growing community of Pan-African ecofeminists.

Due to their success and burgeoning membership of over 60 women all across the African continent, Natalie is ready to dedicate herself to Sisters in Climate full-time. “The seed of community was sown in that event, and there was this need for that space to continue.”

From there, Sister in Climate took its final shape as a digital community for all African women curious and ready to learn and share eco-friendly ideas and tips on fashion, farming, food, and flowers–the four Fs, in their unapologetic feminine energy.

Feminine and warm in style, Sisters in Climate’s Instagram page is already archived with various educational content and activities, such as an African women’s group trip to the Dandora Dumpsite (the largest landfill in East Africa) to raise awareness of the consequences of fast fashion.

When she started branding Sisters in Climate and committing more of her time and energy, Natalie still worked full-time as the Head of Communications for a climate campaign. “At first, Sisters in Climate was a passion project. And the biggest challenge was pouring the time into it while having a full-time job. You have competing priorities of fulfilling your passion and paying the bills; it was frustrating for me not to be able to put in 100% of my time and energy into Sisters in Climate.”

Sisters in Climate brings together women from Kenya, South Africa, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania. This core community participates in digital content, educational activities, and community meetups.

Despite the practical needs of a day job, Natalie knew she wanted to be 100 per cent with the community of sisters, where she felt safe and fulfilled. And, though her corporate job was in climate advocacy, conversations in that space often felt inaccessible and full of tricky jargon to the general public. “I was like, surely, Natalie, as a communications person, or a ‘conduit,’ a tantalising word I learned last year–why not be a conduit at Sisters in Climate?”

As a bilingual person, I am delighted by her fixation on the word ‘conduit.’ “Sometimes I find a word and fall in love with it,” she chuckles.

For Natalie, the serendipitous conversation with a woman she met in Aspen gave her the final push to commit to Sisters in Climate full-time. “When I was nominated as an Aspen Ideas Fellow for my work in communication development, I met a lady from Panama named Uva. As I told her how, in a perfect world, I’d be earning from Sisters in Climate, she simply responded, ‘Well, why not focus on earning from it?’”

“I’m terrified, Jo!” Having decided to become a full-time conduit, Natalie confesses her nervousness. For Natalie, this is it – there’s no turning back.

Moments of anxiety might catch her off-guard from time to time. Yet, deep down, Natalie knows she is destined to become a force to be reckoned with in the environmental sphere.“I grew up near Nairobi Arboretum. I was always close to trees. And the sound of nature was always with me, although I lived within the city limit,” she recollects.

I ask Natalie what she would tell others who are looking to dedicate themselves full-time to their environmental work.

“I would tell them first to exhale. Make sure there's oxygen flowing in your body.”

We take a brief breath, laughing.

“I always shout out my dad, who passed away. I feel like that man just knew this child was destined for greatness,” she laughs. As she shares this, her nervousness completely vanishes.

She recalls his love of listening to motivational speakers like Les Brown, Brian Tracy, and Jim Rohn.

“I would listen to their words in Dad’s car as a 10-year-old–things about having a vision, a purpose. From them, I learned that if you have a clear vision and follow the actions to actualise the vision, everything will eventually work out.” Natalie is confident in her vision for Sisters in Climate – a space where you can trust people to desire growth.

“Most people want to be better every day. If we can have these conversations around environmental conservation in a way that people understand and gently challenge them to be better, then that's inviting change into the world.”

Deep down, Natalie knows to trust her sisters and herself.