We all hear about how the environment around us is changing rapidly. Every day, headlines bring news of extreme weather, rising heat, floods, wildfires, and growing food and economic insecurity affecting homes, families, and communities around the world.

But for many, climate change can still feel distant – something happening elsewhere, or sometime in the future. What is often less visible is how deeply it is already affecting children and young people right now. Yet, it is children who had nothing to do with creating this crisis who will live with its consequences for their entire lives [source: World Health Organization]. 

Recent research has revealed that:

Climate justice is a key focus for Global Fund for Children. In recent years, we have increased our funding working to community-based organizations working to address environmental damage, strengthen resilience to climate shocks, and back young people leading change in their communities. Since children and young people are among those most affected, we believe they must be part of shaping the responses, solutions, and decisions that affect their futures.

To better understand how these realities are unfolding on the ground, we spoke to three GFC colleagues working closely with communities in Brazil, Vietnam, and Thailand. Their experiences highlight both the growing pressures communities face and the ways young people are already leading responses to them.

BRAZIL

Thalita Silva, Program Coordinator

What are you seeing on the ground?

In our work at GFC, what we see is that the climate crisis is not a future threat – it is already happening now, especially in the lives of children, adolescents, and young people. That is why we prioritize listening before action – the realities communities face should shape what solutions look like and where support is needed most.

What these conversations show us is that children and young people are among the most affected by a crisis they did not create and this appears very concretely in everyday life. When floods or droughts drive up food prices, families already living on the edge struggle to afford meals, and children feel it first through hunger. Changes in rainfall patterns make farming more difficult in communities where growing food is central to survival, and when harvests fail, food insecurity follows. Heatwaves also hit hardest in the most impoverished urban areas, where there is less tree cover, less infrastructure, and greater exposure to environmental risks. In riverside communities, rivers are not just part of the landscape – they are the roads people depend on to move between communities. When water levels drop and rivers become unnavigable, children simply cannot get to school.

And yet, despite being among those most affected, children and young people receive only a fraction of climate funding and are too often excluded from decisions shaping their futures.

What are young people doing about it?

What strikes me most is the strength of young people’s responses – not as a one-time reaction, but as an ongoing effort to build alternatives in their communities.

One powerful example is the work of young people in the Arapiuns territory in the Brazilian Amazon, who are mobilizing communities to protect and restore the Arapiuns River. Together with local organizations, they have helped build a movement involving more than 150 communities and are advocating for the river to be legally recognized as a living entity with rights.

This process involves community mobilization, dialogue with residents, and political advocacy, and shows that responses to the climate crisis are already being built within communities. But what is most powerful is what this represents – protecting the river means protecting the conditions for existence now and for future generations.

Why does support matter?

The support from Global Fund for Children matters because it represents a political choice – one about sustaining life.

Very little climate funding reaches children and young people, despite how deeply they are affected. According to a report by CEPAL and UNICEF, only 3.4% of multilateral climate funding in the region effectively reaches children and young people. There is a huge gap between the scale of the problem and the resources directed to those suffering its impacts most.

We see this clearly in practice: when we launched our pilot call, we received more than 150 applications for only 16 grants. The solutions already exist in communities, but access to resources remains extremely limited.

What makes GFC different is how it funds. Flexible, trust-based funding recognises that organizations and communities already know what they need. They need resources that respect their realities, timelines, and ways of organizing – not funding that forces them to reshape their work to fit external expectations.

THAILAND

Suwandee “Beaw” Thatsanaprai, Spark Fund Specialist, Thailand

What are you seeing on the ground?

In Thailand, I see climate change deepening inequalities that already exist. Flooding is becoming more frequent and severe, especially in communities that have long had the least access to support and resources.

In rural areas, changing rainfall patterns are disrupting farming cycles that families have relied on for generations, threatening livelihoods and forcing many people to leave their homes. At the same time, many of these communities are also dealing with mining, mono-crop farming, and land degradation that destroy the ecosystems and natural resources they depend on.

For children and young people, the impact goes far beyond the immediate. When families are displaced because the land can no longer support them, children’s schooling is interrupted, their sense of safety is shaken, and their futures become more uncertain.

What strikes me most is how little voice these communities often have in decisions being made about their futures. Young people are living on the frontlines of these crises, yet they are expected to absorb the consequences of decisions they had no part in making.

What are young people doing about it?

Across Thailand, young people are already taking action – raising awareness in their communities, educating each other, and advocating for fairer environmental policies. They are not waiting to be invited into the conversation. They are creating their own.

One story that means a great deal to me is Commons Youth. It began when young people involved in GFC’s Spark Fund process noticed that youth climate groups across Thailand and Vietnam were often working in isolation – struggling to access funding, but also disconnected from one another and unaware of each other’s work.

Instead of simply moving on, they decided to act. They created Commons Youth as a peer network where young people could support each other, share knowledge, access resources, and collectively advocate for climate justice. They are now developing YouthMap, a tool designed to connect youth organizations across the country and make their work more visible – not only to funders and organizations, but to each other.

Why does support matter?

What makes GFC’s support different is that it reaches the organizations and young people that most funding never finds – small, community-rooted groups that are often overlooked by larger funders.

But it is not only about where funding goes. It is also about how it arrives. Flexible, long-term funding allows communities to respond to what they actually need, rather than reshaping their work around external priorities. That kind of trust is rarer than it should be in this sector.

What I see every day is that being believed in changes what people think is possible. When young people are trusted with real resources and genuine decision-making power, they build something that lasts.

For communities that have long been told their knowledge does not count, and that decisions will be made for them rather than with them, GFC’s support is not just financial. It is a signal that their voices matter and that their solutions are worth backing.

VIETNAM

Loan Thi Vuong, Spark Fund Specialist, Vietnam

What are you seeing on the ground?

“In the communities I work with, climate change is no longer an abstract issue – it is part of everyday life. Children and young people are experiencing more extreme weather, disrupted schooling, and increasing uncertainty about their future.

But beyond the visible impacts, I also notice an emotional layer that is often left unspoken: anxiety, instability, and a quiet grief about environmental loss. Parents worry about fading bird songs, disappearing green mountains, and what kind of world their children will inherit.

These feelings are not always named directly, but they shape how young people experience safety, belonging, and their place in the world.”

What are young people doing about it?

Through the Spark Fund Fellowship, I see deeply creative responses to climate resilience. Fellows are not approaching environmental challenges from a single perspective – they are authors, farmers, artists, journalists, papermakers, and researchers, each bringing their own lens and knowledge to the same crisis.

What inspires me most is this interdisciplinary approach. One fellow, for example, is restoring a degraded forest while also creating a learning space where young people can reconnect with nature.

It is not only environmental restoration – it is about belonging, care, and agency for the next generation.”

Why does support matter?

What I deeply appreciate about Global Fund for Children is the flexibility of its support. It allows fellows to experiment, think beyond what they believed was possible, and try new ideas without fear of failure.

But the support goes beyond funding. It creates a trusting ecosystem where grassroots leaders feel seen, valued, connected, and accompanied through relationships, learning spaces, and opportunities to collaborate.

This kind of support strengthens not only their work, but also their wellbeing – which is essential for sustaining long-term change.

For children and communities, it means they are not facing these challenges alone. They are supported by leaders rooted in their own realities and empowered to respond in ways that are meaningful and lasting.

From these conversations, one thing is undeniable: the climate crisis is already reshaping children’s lives – disrupting education, deepening insecurity, and placing growing pressure on communities already facing immense challenges.

But these stories also show something powerful: young people are not standing still. They are protecting rivers, restoring ecosystems, building community networks, educating others, and creating solutions rooted in the realities they know best.

The challenge is not a lack of leadership, ideas, or commitment. Too often, it is a lack of funding and support for the young people and communities already leading change.

Global Fund for Children will continue standing alongside young people and community-led organizations on the frontlines of climate change providing flexible funding, strengthening local leadership, and backing solutions shaped by the lived realities of the communities experiencing these challenges every day.

Stand with children on the frontlines of climate changeYoung people like those that Thalita, Beaw, and Loan are working with aren’t waiting for someone else to act – they’re protecting rivers, restoring forests, and building networks that support their communities today.

But their work depends on funding that trusts their leadership and meets them where they are. If you’re passionate about protecting the climate and the children who will inherit it, your gift can help sustain the community-led solutions already changing lives.