Ms. Tebello Rampo
Country Director – CYNESA South Africa
Tebello begun her activism in the Catholic Church with the ministry called Justice and Peace. Her formation has always been grounded in the social teachings of the Church. After studying Transcendental Meditation from Maharishi Institute, she found it appealing to join the green environmental movement in 2011 at the height of the UN Climate negotiations, COP17 which was hosted in Durban, South Africa. Her mobilisation ability was traced to communities affected most by the impact of climate change after being introduced to Earthlife Africa Johannesburg, the organization she currently works for. During 5 years of volunteering her experience of green consciousness expanded.
In 2013 Tebello was among the South African youth delegates who gathered in Turkey with 350.0rg for the Global Power Shift. She also was part of the youth that formed YouLead-Collective, under Project 90 by 2030 which had a role of uniting youth from the Global South, towards the Paris climate negotiations
(COP21).
Through Activate!, a network for young people to engage in different actions to develop their respective communities, Tebello won the Activate 2012 Innovation Project Showcase with the Lunchbox project, working with schools that provide feeding schemes.
Her passion for community service saw her travel to rural Kwa Zulu Natal province, on International Citizen Service to volunteer with vulnerable children.
Tebello attended two UN climate negotiation sessions, COPs 17 and 19. She sees more need for youth from the Global South to join the environmental sphere as the impacts are hitting home more. She is now the youngest staff member at Earthlife Africa (Johannesburg). The 27 year old feminist, Global Citizen, Activist Tebello Rampo is passionate that Youth Matter in the Environmental Sector.
Tebello anchors herself strongly in her faith, and is convinced that her spiritual well-being, is vital for her to continue her work and to overcome any challenges she may encounter.