1.7 What drives a changemaker?

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ART REYES III:
For me the motivation on a lot of this work, I think is incredibly clear because of how and where I grew up. My family had wound up in Flint as migrant workers who came there because at the time Flint was a beacon of hope for working class people, one of the first big waves of industrial unions in the United States that started. Flint went from the highest per capita income city in the 1950s to the poorest city in the United States today. I was growing up in the middle of that transition. There was a water crisis, where our water had been tainted by lead. I felt the pull of home in a very, very visceral way.
It was a reminder coming back of like what is at stake, what is at stake in the work that we’re doing?
ELENA MEJIA:
What drives me comes from a very personal understanding of violence and injustice towards women or gender injustice. It came naturally, I think, being a feminist or being interested in feminism. There are things that we call them human rights, but for me, they should be birth rights, education having a roof over your head. Many different things that are fundamental rights that should be birth rights, but because of economic systems failing in society, that is not true to most people around the world, especially in the global South.
KELLY MUNDY:
I suppose since I’ve been young, I got a real sense of unfairness and what injustice is. I’ve always been a bit of a rebel, so I’ve just learned to channel that in the right way. When I got to understand what campaign was and how we can create change in the world, I just felt, yeah, that’s for me. That’s what I want to do with my life. I want to improve people’s lives. And I think that’s what we all deserve.
OUDAI TOZAN:
As a person who left Syria in 2015 and lived displacement, I always want to connect with people who have similar backgrounds, similar interests, similar dreams as well for Syria. So, it’s my personal experience. My connection with Syria and my journey in that exile or in experiencing the displacement really drove me to do what I’m doing.
NEHA SINGH:
My own upbringing, my own conditioning, where in an extremely patriarchal society, even though I had progressive parents, but there was always this fear, this entire fear narrative is extremely detrimental for women’s development and just general mental health and physical health and social well-being. We need to exercise our right to take risks and see that our safety is not our responsibility. And it’s the responsibility of the state. It’s the responsibility of the society.
ERIC NJUGUNA:
As a queer climate justice organiser from the global South, what drives me as a change maker is the fact that I experience injustice directly. Creating change directly to me means justice and liberation.
SABAH KHAN:
I am a Muslim woman living in India. I am a minority and having lived through these experiences of violence and having tried to negotiate those spaces, this is not just about me alone. And as a feminist, one understands that the person is political. And so one tries to then also link oneself with collectives and groups. The idea is that we all come together to create the change that is needed, not just for ourselves, but for a larger community.
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As part of the development of this course, we spoke to people around the world who are passionate about making change happen. We wanted to understand what drives them, how they think about change, and what lessons they could share.

We have included some of the interviews here. The changemakers featured are working on a wide range of different issues, in different contexts, as individuals, in organisations, and as part of networks and movements. Please note that the views expressed are their own.

In this first video we meet Art, Elena, Kelly, Oudai, Neha, Eric and Sabah who share their perspectives on what drives them to take action for change.

Changemaker Profiles:

Chioma Agwuegbo is Executive Director at TechHerNG and is convener of the #StateofEmergencyGBV Movement, a coalition of organisations igniting citizens to advocate for an urgent, comprehensive, and sustainable response to sexual and gender-based violence in Nigeria.

Sabah Khan is co-founder of Parcham, an organisation in India dedicated to breaking stereotypes based on religion, class, caste, gender and other markers of difference to create a society respectful of diversity.

Elena Mejia is a feminist rapper, organiser and facilitator working in Lima, Peru to address issues of gender justice, economic justice and narrative work for social movements in the Actua.pe labs.

Kelly Mundy is a Senior Campaign Manager for Oxfam Great Britain campaigning to tackle inequalities such as economic and gender, which undermine the fight against poverty. 

Eric Njuguna is an organiser with Fridays for Future MAPA (Most Affected People and Areas) in Kenya, supporting protests aimed at putting pressure on world leaders to take action to advance climate justice and to amplify the voices of those most impacted by the climate crisis.

Hadeel Qazzaz is a Regional Gender Justice Coordinator for Oxfam International based in Ramallah, West Bank, and advocates for women's rights throughout the Middle East and North Africa region.

Art Reyes III leads an organisation called We The People: Michigan, that works to build multi-racial working class organising capacity in the state of Michigan, USA, fighting for a better state and community that all people deserve.

Neha Singh is an organiser who started a women's rights campaign called ‘Why Loiter?’ in Mumbai, India, that aims at reclaiming public spaces for women by loitering.

Oudai Tozan is a researcher and founding member of the Syrian academics and researchers network in the UK, working with the Syrian diaspora and those who experienced forced migration to mobilise, connect and support each other, but also to support Syria when the situation allows.

1.6 People as activists: making change happen

1.8 Three views on change