Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for this opportunity
to speak in this assembly. This assembly who has now to decide the survival or the death of my community. This is one of the world’s worst humanitarian
crises, struggling for attention. Over 3.5 million internally displaced people
are fleeing violence and food insecurity. Inhabitants are at a
crossroads of life-threatening challenges ranging
from terrorism to drought. As the desert gains ground, can the
vanishing lake and its peo
ple be saved? Chad as a country, is
a very vulnerable place. We are the door of the desert. Climate change impacts Indigenous
people more than other communities because their lives
depend on the environment. The bush is our supermarket. It’s our pharmacy, it’s our energy. It is our water point. It’s everything for us. And if this ecosystem is getting extinct, that means our life is getting extinct. That's all the life of Indigenous
peoples everywhere in the world. The cattle came in. That’s not
good for us. That’s the crazy thing. The same water that cattle drink, the people have to drink. So people have to go to the
other side around to get water. That’s the shocking part. Climate change already
is a big drama in our life, but it has impacted
more women and children, because those are the
ones using the first resources. It makes me angry that my people just get this kind of water for drinking. In this 21st century? This world is not fair. Do you need any help? Are you OK? This is real
ly heavy! And it’s the women who are in
charge of the food in the communities. When the milk is not enough, it’s the woman who sacrifices herself by giving the food first to the children and old people and the
man before to eat the last. Those women are incredible solution makers. They cannot wait for the man to come home after 3 or 9 months to eat. They innovate, they find the water, they find everything
to feed their children. By the time that men come back
home, they are already surviving. Th
ey are the survivors. They are the real keepers of the
tradition and of the communities. And that's why they are the
best ones to build the solutions. You cannot build the climate
solution without including the women, without listening to the women. I owe a lot to my people because I learned from independent women. They are the ones that made me who I am. I grew up between two lives. When I went to school with
my mom, I stayed in the city. And during each break of the school, I would go back to
my community. If I didn't went to school, I may have a different life. Why are the children running away? We have come from far to see you! Dear cousin, how are you? I’m so happy to see you here! Me too! How's the family? Great! My sister also came with me. I see you prepared tea
for me, thank you so much! The girls of my age have not only kids, but they have grandchildren already. Their life is really beautiful. They are enjoying their lives
because they have children, they have grandchildren.
But they cannot fight
for all the communities. Going to school enabled me to fight for Indigenous peoples. Because I can understand
what others are saying, what they are writing. We should have a party and celebrate now that everyone is here! Get ready to dance all night! Oh, I’m ready for it! I was really lucky because my mom is a brave woman who decided 30 years ago,
fighting her own community and my father’s community
to send her girls to school. Salaam alaikum. Comment ça va? As kids, we ask
ed our
mom if we could do her hair. I wanted something traditional, but Hindou wanted something different, new. So she kept fighting me until she won. You have always been very bossy. This is my mom. This mom... I admire her because she's my inspiration. She's my hero. Yes, our hero. She’s the one that told me: If you went to school, you can be the one that defends the rights of others who are violated, and how to live in harmony with our culture and our environment. What did you think would hap
pen when you decided to send us to school? I never dreamed of this happening. This is beyond my expectations. Is that true? Yes! The people that used to
criticize me for educating my girls now admire me. They used to say “It’s only a woman”… Women were considered useless. Like your cousin, she
gave birth to 5 girls. Everyone was criticizing the poor girl saying she was a bad wife. I stopped them and said: Hindou is a girl. That shut them up. I told them: “You can put
all the man working together
, but they still won’t achieve
as much as Hindou has”. Thank you for hosting us,
Minister of the Environment and also a nomad if I may, my brother. This belief in our plight,
and trust in us to help address it is what we want
and we really count on you. The current corridor dates from
the 1950s and is not working. Exactly. Now we have more villages
than before, we are going to try to relocate the nomadic
migratory corridors. Let’s work together on this to see
what will be best for the community.
By the Pritzker Prize that
I won for the environment, I will invest it in the mapping of
the region of all nomadic people so that we can have a clear
map of their migratory corridor and avoid conflicts. And I would love to
have your support there. Thank you so much, Minister. It comforts me that we
have, outside the government, a vision of someone who
knows the environment and who can tell us
that we have done wrong. Your input and oversight will
encourage us over time to move forward and help
these populations
who suffer from climate change. Thank you so much,
Minister. This is wonderful! It is I who thanks you. Indigenous people are not vulnerable. We become vulnerable. We become a victim of climate change, but we are not only a victim. We are solutions people. Indigenous peoples protect 80% of the world's biodiversity. As big as the Earth is, Indigenous peoples can fix it. Welcome! Thank you! Those traditional knowledge that we know from generations by living in harmony with nature
will be the world savior. Welcome! Thanks for having me. She's finally here! Thank God! Bless her! The important thing here would be to map every land you live in. Take notes of the geography and resources of the place you are at. But we cannot fix it [Earth]
if our rights are not respected, if our land is not protected, if we do not have access
to this basic resources that we want to keep
the balance in this nature. The reason you are having
problems accessing the land and water is because whe
n you leave, the cattle’s manure settles and transforms it into very fertile land. The farmers see this beautiful land, they see it’s empty,
so they decide to stay. Our knowledge is oral. We transfer our knowledge
through generations. So, that's why, for us, if one of our elder person passes away, it’s a library that you cannot recover. So, one of the solutions for me, it's using the 3D participatory mapping. It's to use the memory of
our ancestors to recover. These corridors all take to a water
spot so cattle can have a drink
and humans can get water. If we don’t have a clear
map of the corridors, there will never be a proper
management of the natural resources and conflicts will continue
between the communities. The map is 100% built by the community with a science-based knowledge. Millions of people depend heavily on the natural resources of Lake Chad. Over the past 50 years, climate change has
seriously impacted the region and the communities that
depend upon it for water, leading
to increasing
conflict in the region. One solution? To bring pastoralists, farmers,
and community members together to share ancestral knowledge
and spatial information ...as well as the challenges they face... In order to create a shared tool
that considers the needs of all; a participatory three dimensional map. This inclusive process allows
everyone’s voice to be heard and fosters common goals
based on cultural identity and the need for sustainable management. Thanks to the models and maps cre
ated, community representatives
and local authorities can understand the issues
and make informed decisions that can help contribute to
growth and conflict management. I met the President of Chad
and asked for his support. I asked him to help us with two things: Land mapping and education. If our children don’t go to
school they won’t be able to read. Education is essential
to improve our lives. The President promised to support us and assigned the
Minister of the Environment to help us with wha
tever we needed. So? What do you think
about this mapping project? Will this be helpful to your communities? - This is exactly what we needed! - Yes, indeed! - This is the medicine for the
sickness we have suffered for years. When I was a little girl, I was always challenging myself to
do something that the others didn’t. So, I was dreaming to drive an airplane, to land it into my community
and to tell them that it’s possible. Even being a woman
it's possible, you can do it. Let's go! Let me jum
p in! Wait for me! Make some space! I want to go, too! Please, let me in! I’m always telling them. Do
you think I have big muscles? There's no place. Go around, go around! I don’t have them. But I have my brain. Maybe you can make
yours work better than mine. Go to school, and then you will be
the master of your life. The nomadic pastoralists
are the guardians of nature. For centuries we have lived in harmony with Mother Earth. For us, we are all hiring this nature. We are not there forever. You
can stay for a hundred years, but one day you will pass away, and you need to leave this land to
another generation that is coming. That’s why we are using these
resources in a very equitable way. For us, it’s our way of life. That is why we keep this lifestyle. It’s who we are. We used to live in harmony with nature, but now it’s becoming our enemy. Why are we getting this extreme weather, even in developed countries? Because they do not
respect the environment. They have to understand
that, a
s human beings, we are only one species of nature, and if we are using these resources
more than each other species, we are breaking the balance. And that is exactly what is happening now. So it’s the time that they come
and learn from our wisdom. You can find the solution
only when you live with nature. The best engineer is nature, he can recover himself, so we must learn from it. These little ants are so important to predict the weather. When they come out they
start building their home. The y
ear that they build it very up, that means the rainy season will
be very heavy, with a lot of flood. And if they don’t build it up, that means the rainy season
will not be flooding their homes. So this shows us how we can move, how far we can go during the year. As long as we have the ants. As long as we have the
flowers, the trees, the wind, we can continue doing our prediction of weather and our planning for adaptation. But if we didn't combat climate change, we will lose this knowledge. At th
e community, when
you have your first baby born, you stay in place until the 7th day, before picking up camp
and going to the next place. Could we meet the baby? Congratulations on the exciting news! Come with Hindou, baby. So precious! This innocent angel, coming to this world. And then you get people that just like to pollute this planet. For you, little baby, I will fight to keep
this place safe for you. Chad is a poor country. We are the most impacted by Climate Change. We have 10 years to c
hange it. Ten years is nothing. We need to act together
and we need to act right now. My people can’t wait. There really is no time. In this summit in New York, I met the Secretary
General of the United Nations, I meet many important people
who make decisions in this world. And I told them that it’s very difficult, when you know, people who
are supposed to take the decision, who have to setup a new plan
of development of the world, and who have the power
to do it, but do not take it? My people b
ack home
are struggling to get water. Fighting, killing each other to
access the shrinking resources? On which planet are we? Are we really feeling the same emergency? We have to protect each
other as one species of nature. Environmental crisis, climate
crisis is a humanity crisis. Finally, they have to hear from us. I would like to welcome to the lectern, Miss Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, from Chad. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen. Climate change is adding
poverty to poverty every day. Migration
is challenging
for rich countries. But it’s a tragedy for
those who are left behind. For those women and children, who have to stay and fight back the consequences of
climate change on their own. We fight for survival. In Paris, you gave us hope. But now it’s time to change
your hope into promise. Excellencies. If you do not increase
finance for adaptation, soon there will be no one to adapt. Thank you.
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