Rebeca Sabnam, 16 year-old New York City high school junior and Cafeteria Culture Youth Advocate, delivered a powerful speech about the intersection of the Climate Crisis and Human Rights at the Youth Climate Strike NYC on 9/20/19, attended by 250,000 people.

Rebeca spoke about the intersection of the climate emergency, racial injustice and poverty and how Bangladeshi women are extremely vulnerable to post- displacement trafficking, magnified by the Climate Crisis.

Rebeca was born in NYC, and spent her early childhood in Bangladesh, a frontline community of the climate crisis. She’s marched around Lower East Side, NYC with trash puppets, rallied at City Hall to give speeches, and helped to get styrofoam banned in public schools citywide. Rebeca’s advocacy work followed into middle school for the plastic bag ban. She is now working towards making her school zero waste while also shedding light on the vulnerabilities Bangladesh faces.

Speech Excerpt:
"So let’s give Bengali women the most basic human rights: protection from trafficking, the right to freedom, and the right to live. We want Bengali women - as well as the Rohingya people living in Bangladeshi refugee camps - to know that youth around the world are striking for their lives and security!

"Human greed is fueling our oceans with the power to wipe Bangladesh off the map.

"We’re almost out of time!"