Izma Fatima
President - Girl Up Northern Emirates
Izma is the President of Girl Up Northern Emirates with involvement in change-making projects associated with technology, sustainability, women empowerment, and student development. She has worked alongside high level stakeholder including the UN foundation, Exxonmobil, and ANPG among other government and intergovernmental entities.
1. What motivated you to join MEBAS?
The willingness of the team to incorporate youth actors and facilitate their involvement in high-level initiatives was one of the key motivations to join the team. As a devout advocate of youth engagement in sustainability initiatives this was the ideal space to leverage stronger action and dialogue with industry leaders.
2. What sustainability topic or challenge are you most passionate about?
A key challenge I feel passionately for is sustainable empowerment and protection of vulnerable communities. While climate and relevant crises affect all, the impact is not equally felt. While capacity building is important it is important to give targeted attention to the most vulnerable communities, this is something I am passionate towards enabling.
3. What kind of impact would you like to create as part of this community?
My goal is to create better stakeholder engagement in discussion and action for sustainability. Having worked actively with multiple government, educational, and corporate actors, toward sustainability, I believe I can play a role in effectively streamlining activity to generate maximum output and benefit from valuable initiatives.
4. How do you see your role as an ambassador driving change in your region or industry?
The network that MEBAS has promised to create will serve as an invaluable resource to strengthening student action for sustainability. As a MEBAS Ambassador, I see myself supporting the organization to strengthen such action and translate genuine student interest into genuine sustainable action.