2018 Annual Report: The African Climate Reality Project
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Branch Manager: Gillian Hamilton
Action 24 Project Manager: Noelle Garcin
Action 24 Gauteng Province Coordinator: Vusi Ndukuya
Communications Officer: Nicole Thérèse Rodel When you’re tackling something as big and complex as the climate crisis, it helps to have deep commitment, wide-ranging expertise, and even a little hope. Just ask the team at the African Climate Reality Project, Climate Reality’s Africa branch office in Johannesburg. After realizing traditional business values weren’t for her, Branch Manager Gillian Hamilton began a new career in sustainable development, working in HIV prevention and treatment for women and children. Recognizing the implications of climate change in Africa for herself and her children, Gillian shifted course again and trained in the GIZ Climate Leadership Program, becoming a real climate activist and joining Climate Reality. A longtime human rights activist, Project Assistant Vusi Ndukuya has taken a big-picture approach to climate action. After training in business management, Vusi began working with an energy efficiency program and then at the Sustainability Institute Innovation Lab. At the lab, he worked with solar microgrids to increase access to clean and safe energy for the urban poor. The experience deepened his understanding of the climate crisis, and wanting to use his knowledge of renewable energy systems to solve it, he joined the African Climate Reality Project. With a background in political science and international relations, Project Manager Noelle Garcin originally hails from France, but has spent the last 11 years working in Asia, Belgium, and South Africa. Prior to joining the African Climate Reality Project in 2016, she spent seven years coordinating and managing an African-European civil society network advocating for the right to basic education in Africa, and for better development cooperation practices. Spending time in South Africa’s game reserves as a photographer and videographer, Communications Officer Nicole Thérèse Rodel always had an interest in environmental activism. Graduating with a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Rhodes University, she knew she wanted to produce work about the connection between conservation and healthy communities – and she knew the traditional newsroom wasn’t the place to do it. Introduced to Climate Reality by her mother – who trained as a Climate Reality Leader in 2014 – she found a home at the African Climate Reality Project and has worked to raise awareness of the interconnected issues of environmental injustice in South Africa and beyond. Despite their different backgrounds, all the African Climate Reality Project staff share a common commitment to challenging old attitudes on fossil fuels and creating a new model of low-carbon development in Africa. And drawing inspiration from the incredible young people they see standing up to fight for their future across the continent, they know they can do it.
Action 24 Project Manager: Noelle Garcin
Action 24 Gauteng Province Coordinator: Vusi Ndukuya
Communications Officer: Nicole Thérèse Rodel When you’re tackling something as big and complex as the climate crisis, it helps to have deep commitment, wide-ranging expertise, and even a little hope. Just ask the team at the African Climate Reality Project, Climate Reality’s Africa branch office in Johannesburg. After realizing traditional business values weren’t for her, Branch Manager Gillian Hamilton began a new career in sustainable development, working in HIV prevention and treatment for women and children. Recognizing the implications of climate change in Africa for herself and her children, Gillian shifted course again and trained in the GIZ Climate Leadership Program, becoming a real climate activist and joining Climate Reality. A longtime human rights activist, Project Assistant Vusi Ndukuya has taken a big-picture approach to climate action. After training in business management, Vusi began working with an energy efficiency program and then at the Sustainability Institute Innovation Lab. At the lab, he worked with solar microgrids to increase access to clean and safe energy for the urban poor. The experience deepened his understanding of the climate crisis, and wanting to use his knowledge of renewable energy systems to solve it, he joined the African Climate Reality Project. With a background in political science and international relations, Project Manager Noelle Garcin originally hails from France, but has spent the last 11 years working in Asia, Belgium, and South Africa. Prior to joining the African Climate Reality Project in 2016, she spent seven years coordinating and managing an African-European civil society network advocating for the right to basic education in Africa, and for better development cooperation practices. Spending time in South Africa’s game reserves as a photographer and videographer, Communications Officer Nicole Thérèse Rodel always had an interest in environmental activism. Graduating with a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Rhodes University, she knew she wanted to produce work about the connection between conservation and healthy communities – and she knew the traditional newsroom wasn’t the place to do it. Introduced to Climate Reality by her mother – who trained as a Climate Reality Leader in 2014 – she found a home at the African Climate Reality Project and has worked to raise awareness of the interconnected issues of environmental injustice in South Africa and beyond. Despite their different backgrounds, all the African Climate Reality Project staff share a common commitment to challenging old attitudes on fossil fuels and creating a new model of low-carbon development in Africa. And drawing inspiration from the incredible young people they see standing up to fight for their future across the continent, they know they can do it.
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