In the early hours of a Saturday with weather forecasts indicating rain, a group of 18 young people walk about two km beyond the housing area of Matola to the mangrove forest of the Indian Ocean, whose waters bathe the coast of Maputo City, the capital of Mozambique. With garbage bags and yellow gloves on their hands, it's not difficult to work out their intentions.

Leading the way is Regina Charumar, wearing a white T-shirt like most of the group, and bearing the slogan Geração Consciente (meaning Conscious Generation in Portuguese). She is the leader and founder of the organization that, for more than three years, has been responsible for sensitizing the community of Maputo on the importance of environmental awareness.

Geração Consciente is an environmental initiative mainly supported by young people. It exists with the aim of organizing and carrying out environmental activities. These include a television program with the same name and objective, regular cleaning campaigns, environmental awareness campaigns and university lectures.

Love for environment

The young members of the project and their leader reach their work destination, the Lingamo Mangrove, and prepare for work. The group splits up into pairs and focus on picking up plastic litter.

It is a beautiful piece of nature. A place from where people can look out over Maputo, the beautiful Maputo cityscape, Katembe Bridge and the beautiful flamingos feeding themselves with the fish in its natural pools. If not for the amount of litter spread across the area brought from the city by the waterways, it would be a mini-paradise.

Charumar is a defender and lover of the environment, and the Geração Consciente organization is a small practical result of this love. At the age of 32, she is currently completing her Ph.D. degree in social sustainability and development, specializing in environmental sustainability.

The young leader was born in the city of Beira, the second largest city in Mozambique, which gained the world's attention in 2019 when it was devastated by cyclone Idai, which killed more than 750 people.

"I am an environmentalist. I manage to take my environmental activism and include it in all my jobs - teacher and TV presenter," said Charumar.

Arriving in Maputo seven years ago, she was outraged by the state of the beaches, especially the renowned Costa do Sol beach, located in the capital. Moved by the desire to correct the problem, Charumar, in partnership with the city's academic community, started Operation Caco in 2015, a project that turned the dirtiest beach in Mozambique into one of the cleanest.

She said she always had a passion for organization and that was one of the things that led her to make the decision to be an environmentalist in everything she does in life. The surname Charumar itself is a derivation of the Portuguese word arrumar, which means to clean or organize.

"My surname always reminds me about cleaning, caring and organizing. As a girl, I liked to plant things and had my own vegetable garden," she said.

She also founded the cooperative Ntumbuluku (meaning origin, in a southern Mozambique dialect), with the aim of educating the Mozambican community about the environment, as well as the Friends of the Environment group. In 2018, Charumar participated in the event Southern Africa Startup Awards as an ambassador for the environment.

Today, for the Geração Consciente, what they do is much more than a job: It is a growing family that they love. Because of her dedication, the members have a lot of respect and admiration for Charumar.

Tarik Azizi has been part of the project for two years. After having been part of several green movements as a volunteer, he likes the way Geração Consciente operated.

According to Azizi, the fact that the project is not only focused on cleaning, but also making people aware of protecting the environment made him want to join volunteer "family."

"Here we help each other on matters that go beyond these activities and create relationships that go beyond work. So, it's not just a matter of doing the cleaning, but also of enjoying each other's company. That's why whenever [we meet to clean up], we look forward to being together."

After about two hours of cleaning, the group gathers the trash bags, form a circle where they introduce themselves and welcome new members, before disposing the bags in a garbage container.

Looking at the cleaning results over the past months, it is clear the path charted by one person can spark an environmental awareness revolution.

Green care

Charumar thinks there is little being done by the Mozambican Government in regard to climate protection action.

Mozambique is one of the five countries most affected by climate change in the world, despite contributing very little as a polluter of the environment. This is because the country is located in the coastal zone of the continent. The coastline is 2,700 km long, and almost half of the country is made up of low-lying areas, which makes it susceptible to rising sea levels.

Despite this, the long coast is an advantage as it makes tourism in Mozambique one of the country's largest economic resources. Also, in 2010, a considerable amount of natural gas was discovered in the southern part of the country, which placed Mozambique in 13th place on the list of countries with the largest natural gas reserves.

"We have a country rich in natural resources, in fauna, in biodiversity, in environmental components that cannot be compared with [any other] countries in the world. So, we must look at environmental issues as a priority, and that is the government's challenge. We will only have all these resources cared for and preserved if we start looking at the environment as a priority," she said.

In her view, the green resources are not inexhaustible, and, without proper care at some point, will result in the extinction of many species.

As a university lecturer at several institutions of higher learning, including the Instituto Superior de Comunicação e Imagem, Charumar thinks there is a need to include environmental education in school curricula, along with starting regular environmental campaigns in Mozambican news outlets because "Mozambique has the best environmental legislation in Africa," she said.

"If we implement our legislation and start looking at it seriously, we will have the best country in the world in environmental terms," she said optimistically.

It is this belief that keeps her motivated to continue to fight for environmental justice in Mozambique.

On her Instagram account, Charumar calls herself an Ambientalist - someone concerned about environmental quality, especially of the human environment with respect to the control of pollution. It's a nomenclature that fits her perfectly. By ensuring all her green efforts are focused on young people, she believes there is hope for the future of environmental justice in her country. CA

(Print Edition Title: Green Warrior)

Reporting from Mozambique

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