'Give us a seat that stays': East Africa's children hand their leaders a climate plan

They came with a document, not a protest sign. Children from across East Africa have presented a formal declaration to the East African Community — handed to Deputy Secretary General Aguer Ariik at the Parliament of Uganda on October 16 — asking the region's leaders to put children inside climate decisions, not just in the photographs. Their asks are practical: schools and clinics built to withstand floods and heat, safe water and sanitation, early-warning systems that reach villages in time, and climate lessons in the curriculum. And one structural request: a permanent EAC Regional Children's Council, so the asking does not have to start from scratch each year — with children with disabilities and those from rural and displaced communities explicitly included.

SDG 13 · Climate action — Mechanism: community action