BRAZILIAN YOUNG PEOPLE TO COP26

Bitaté Uru-eu-wau-wau, 21 years old, lives in Rondônia State, Brazil. President of the Uru-eu-wau-wau Indigenous Peoples Association, he is responsible for monitoring the territory where he lives, with the use of technological tools, such as drones, in order to give more consistency to the reports of environmental crimes to the control bodies and also to monitor the biodiversity of the region.
 
The Uru-eu-wau-wau Indigenous Land has 1,867,117 hectares and is one of the most important in Rondônia due to its biodiversity and for sheltering the sources of the main rivers in the state. This is also one of the most deforested regions in the Amazon. 

Bitaté grew up seeing his father and other indigenous leaders protecting the territory and fending off intruders. At 13 years old, he began to act in defense of the territory. For him, protecting the forest is a way to continue the work of his ancestors. Bitaté is also an indigenous communicator, and he has been dedicated to photography.

ENGAJAMUNDO

Bruna Valença, 22 years old, born and raised in the West Zone of RJ, in a peripheral neighbourhood called Santa Cruz. Social and environmental activist, Environmental Technician and Student in Forestry Engineering at UFRRJ. The passion for working with climate emerged during an ICMBio volunteering in the Amazon, where she was able to participate in a project called AFEX at the Amazon Research Institute. She currently works with REDD+ as an intern in the REDD for Pioneers (REM-MT) program at the Brazilian Biodiversity Fund and is the National Articulator of Engajamundo where she co-coordinated Brota no Clima, a Climate Education program for young people from the outskirts of the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro. She was also part of the SDG Students program at SDSN Youth, being the coordinator of the first HUB on the SDG at UFRRJ.

Camille Cristina, 18 years old, is from the outskirts of São Paulo and a student of International Relations, working with the environmental agenda since 2020, the year she joined Engajamundo. With a background in circular economy from the Universidad Externado de Colombia, a fellowship in the Youth Climate Leaders organization and contact with corporate sustainability, she has a dream of a world of justice and progress. Passionate about social and environmental justice, and, in addition to being an articulator of the Engajamundo advocacy subgroup, she also works in voluntary projects aimed at people in situations of social vulnerability and leads the black and indigenous collective of her college, which she idealized and co- founded.

Carolina Oliveira Dias, 21 years old, from Caçapava do Sul, a city in the heartland of the pampas of Rio Grande do Sul state. She is a graduate in Political Science and articulator of Engajamundo within the Climate WG. She is mainly engaged in agendas related to sustainable food systems with a focus on the human right to food and public policies on cross-cutting themes. In 2020, she was a delegate from Brazil at MockCOP26, youth simulation of the conference. Within Engajamundo, she is part of the education and advocacy subgroups, having jointly built the Engajamundo Youth Vision for the Development of Brazil in the fields of countryside, forests and aquatic ecosystems. Having been interested in the climate and social agenda since she was a child and having an affection relationship with cooking, she united her two passions and advocates that access to healthy and natural food for all is an essential part of the struggle for socio-climatic justice. Currently, she also jointly coordinates Engajamundo's delegation to COP26.

Celina Maria Müller Ferreira Pinagé is an activist for the climate and biodiversity, fighting for the sustainability and conservation of the Amazon region. She is 22 years old and is from the North region, living in Manaus, Amazonas state. Autistic and activist for the rights of people with disabilities, she works for the climate and environmental agenda to become fair, accessible, and inclusive.

Darlly Tupinambá, 21 years old, from Santarém (Pará state), Social Work Student, currently National Councilor for Youth - CONJUVE MMFDH, National coordinator of the Engajamundo youth network, in which she is part of the Biodiversity, Climate and Gender working groups, Supervisor at the Suraras do Tapajós Indigenous Women's Association, Volunteer at the Health and Happiness Project, Indigenous activist, working in the environmental cause and in the rights of native peoples since she was 14 years old. The fight for climate justice has always been present in her life, in the lives of her people. Fighting for the standing forest is fighting for life. 

Frances Andrade, 25 years old, was born and raised in the backwoods of Sergipe state, in the municipality of Nossa Senhora da Glória. He is a Forestry Engineer, activist and socio-environmentalist fighting for a fairer and more sustainable planet. He got involved with the climate agenda from very early on, observing the dynamics of the backwoods and the Caatinga biome, and thinking how much he wanted to change the situation in that historically vulnerable region, which is located in a worrying context of exploitation of forest resources and soil degradation. Today, he actively participates in two youth networks. In Engajamundo, where he has coordinated the biodiversity working group and now took part of the official COP26 delegation. And in the Global Youth Biodiversity Network, coordinating the Brazilian national chapter and the group of experts in restoration. In addition, he is part of MUVUCA climate activism program of the organization NOSSA, and is part of the youth task force of the decade at UN.

Giselli Cavalcanti, 27 years old, is Graduated from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte State, with a degree in Psychology (2016) and a master's degree in Environmental Psychology (2019), being an environmental psychologist and a climate activist. She currently works as coordinator of the Engajamundo Climate Working Group, a youth leadership network whose mission is to bring together the socio-environmental agendas of Brazilian youth. She works also as Campaign Strategist at WWF-Brazil. She learned that much of the transformation she seeks in the world comes from what is created collectively, that's why she actively seek to build environments that drive collaborative action and the development of the network's potential. For this reason, in the last five years, she has been dedicating herself to the climate agenda, especially to issues of education and climate justice, besides the insertion of young people in decision-making spaces, advocating for a more democratic, participatory climate debate, connected with different social realities. In this sense, she planned and executed projects, campaigns, and activism actions, being also part of the delegation of Brazilian youth at COP25 in Madrid, in 2019. In 2021, she coordinates the delegation of 13 young people to COP26.

Isvilaine da Silva Conceição, 25 years old, lives at Passa Três (Rio de Janeiro state). She is an activist for Climate, Racial and Gender justice. Graduated in Environmental Engineering, she is the founder of Ambientalking, an initiative that seeks to racialize socio-environmental agendas through information and encouragement of dialogue, seeking the intersectionality of the socio-environmental agenda. She believes that without social and racial justice there is no environmental justice. She fights for an ecologically healthy world for all.

Jaciara Borari, from the Borari people of the Alter do Chão (Pará state), 25 years old, is an Anthropology student at the Federal University of West Pará (UFOPA). She is on the board of the Suraras do Tapajós Indigenous Women's Association, which combat violence against indigenous women and racism. She is also a member of the Território das Artes Institute (ITA) and vice member of the Popular Front for Santarena Youth. She has been an activist since childhood, side by side with her parents, in the indigenous movement, and also in defence of the environment. She is articulator in Engajamundo by NL Engajajós, facilitator of the Engaja project in the Amazon.

Mirela Coelho Pita, 20 years old, was born and raised in Feira de Santana (Bahia state). Student of the Interdisciplinary Bachelor's Degree in Energy and Sustainability at the Federal University of Recôncavo da Bahia (UFRB), aiming at Energy Engineering. She started working with climate activism in 2019 when she became a volunteer at Engajamundo. But before that she was already working on projects and initiatives with socio-environmental issues in her city, including the georeferencing of degraded springs for further revitalization and protection actions. She organized the first Strikes for the Climate in Feira de Santana and between 2020 and 2021 was coordinator of Engajamundo's afforestation campaign, named Plantaê. She attended a UN conference for the first time in 2019 - the Climate Week Salvador - and is now preparing to be at COP 26 in Glasgow. She is currently a volunteer in the climate change working group and is studying communication as a form of mobilization for climate action, working with the organization of Engajamundo's network communications, in partnership with the coordinators. She is part of Engajamundo's representative team in the Communication Journey focused on audiences at Diálogo Brasil, where she learns the use of strategic communication tools and campaign development. Her priority demand is to bring peripheral youths closer to socio-environmental agendas.

Paulo Ricardo, 27 years old, was born and raised in Feira de Santana, in the inner Bahia state. He is coordinator of Engajamundo's Climate Change working group and student of Human Sciences at the University of International Integration of the Afro-Brazilian Lusophony, in addition to working as campaigner at Purpose organization, developing strategies and tactics for environmental campaigns for third sector organizations. He was part of the official Brazilian delegation to three United Nations Conferences on Climate Change: COP24 - Poland, COP25 - Spain and LACCW (Climate Week), at Salvador (Bahia state). In 2021 he was one of the Brazilian young people involved in the process against the Brazilian government for the environmental fraud, and currently also coordinates Engajamundo's youth delegation to COP26. Passionate about life and climate activist, fighting for a fair and egalitarian society, he is in search of a better world.

Samara Assunção, 21 years old, lives at Feira de Santana (Bahia state) and is a student of the Interdisciplinary Bachelor's Degree in Energy and Sustainability at the Federal University of Recôncavo Baiano (UFRB). She is the National Coordinator of Engajamundo, facilitator of Script Production and Recording of the podcast 'Pimenta pra Jovem é Refresco', ZAPmenta Producer and Scriptwriter, Social Media Junior at QUID, co-founder of the Tereza de Benguela Women's Collective (CMTB). She is part of the Engajamundo Climate Change Working Group and of the climate activism program MUVUCA, by Nossas. Activist for the Climate, for Racial and Gender Equality, she believes that it is not possible to talk about socio-environmental agendas without intersectionality, and that Education and Communication with a purpose together with mobilization can solve the biggest social and environmental problems in Brazil. As long as there are injustices, she will keep fighting.

Txai Suruí, 24 years old, lives in Rondônia State, Brazil. She belongs to the Paiter Suruí people and is the founder of the Indigenous Youth movement in the state. Txai is a law student and works at the legal department Kanindé Ethno-Environmental Defense Association, which is considered as a reference organization in matters related to the indigenous cause.
 
She is also a young representative of the Guardians of the Forest - an alliance of communities that protects tropical forests around the world - and an Adviser for the Global Alliance “Amplifying Voices for Fair Climate Action”. Txai has been acting as volunteer for Engajamundo organization as well, and was the representative of her people at the UN Climate Conference - COP25, in Madrid.

Txai became an activist from an early age, inspired by her parents - the chief Almir Suruí and the indigenist Ivaneide Bandeira Cardozo. She was also active in the student movement, as the first indigenous president of the Academic Center for Law at the Federal University of Rondônia. She works for a standing forest, for human rights and environmental and social justice for all, and also is part of the WWF-Brazil Deliberative Council.