How the GirlsCARE Mentorship Programme cured my Imposter Syndrome

It might seem strange to say in blog dedicated to Caribbean Climate Change Activism but until perhaps a month ago I never considered myself as a climate change activist.

Who is a Caribbean Climate Change Activist and what does it mean to pursue this alongside Caribbean Feminism? These are the questions I hoped to find answers to when I applied for the 2023 cohort GirlsCARE JA Mentorship Program (CARE: Climate Action, Resilience and Empowerment).

The result would have been much more than anything I could have anticipated. Like a lost pirate I had stumbled upon a treasure trove of female activists creating their own avenues of change within their communities and inspiring others to do so through mentorship. This blog would have been the direct result of seeing the work and effort of my Mentor Dizzanne Billy an accomplished climate communicator herself.

In ten weeks, ten sessions, eight presenters from across the Caribbean and the African continent and from the experiences of 20 women and girl activists it would take at least a book to fully unpack all the ways GirlsCARE helped me.

With a significant smaller word count than a book, here are my three greatest takeaways from the program:

When the only young climate activist I saw were Greta Thunberg and Xiye Batiste, it made me feel like I couldn't possibly aspire to becoming a changemaker.

Imposter syndrome is the feeling of not belonging somewhere despite being qualified. It often comes with a fear of others discovering that you are fraud. I am a writer and despite having stories and articles published I always feel shy to admit that as a part of my identity. I am an advocate for sustainability, but I never felt like the word activist suited me. Surely an activist was someone who took to the streets placard in hand ready to dismantle the system by any means necessary. Despite my hard work and accomplishments, I felt that I had fooled everyone into believing I was more capable than I actually was.

Graphic representation of Imposter Syndrome.

What GirlsCARE showed me is that there is not a single archetype of who can advocate for climate change. My own mentor had many different experiences before finally becoming a Caribbean climate change journalist at Climate Tracker. Another mentor in the program from my beautiful home Saint Kitts is our island mermaid Tricia King. Her advocacy focuses on educating the public on the importance of conservation in the Federation and beyond.

It is safe to say that GirlsCARE exposed me to the greatest concentration of female Caribbean climate activists in my life and yet no two mentors, mentees or presenters were the same in terms of the type of advocacy that they engaged in, action in which they partook or the personal experiences that lead them to climate activism. What they did all share however was their passion for climate justice and commitment to education and action in their communities and beyond.

"We do this with no capital except our valuable time. We do this because the world we live in is a house on fire and the people we love are burning."

- Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street.

It was a moment of awakening for me to be recognised by these women. To be in session with them was to learn that in many ways we weren't so different after all. When the only young climate activists I saw were Greta Thunberg and Xiye Batiste, it made me feel like I couldn't possibly aspire to becoming a changemaker. GirlsCARE opened my eyes to our own Caribbean flavour of feminist climate change changemakers.

I felt empowered. Advocating for climate action in my community no longer seemed far fetched. Instead, I could almost see myself standing shoulder to shoulder with these incredible women was a validation of my advocacy. Although they all overcame hurdles to arrive where the currently stood, it encouraged me stand against the challenges I too would inevitably face.

If these incredible women were Caribbean feminist climate change activists, then I too would go into the world wearing the same title if only to give me even the slightest commonality with them.