QS Impact
Raising Rwanda’s Next Generation of Climate Leaders
By: Anshaj Ahuja, QS ImpACT
In Kinyinya, Kigali, the effects of poor waste management and rising emissions are not distant statistics. They are visible on the streets where young people grow up, play, and learn.
The QS ImpACT Council in Kigali, Rwanda, recognised this and chose to act close to home.
In 2025, their initiative “Intore mu Biruhuko: Climate Heroes in Action” won the QS ImpACT Climate Education Youth Award, recognition for a programme focused on building climate awareness at the community level.
A Youth Climate Education Programme Rooted in Kinyinya
"Intore mu Biruhuko" translates loosely to "heroes during the holidays." Led by Thomas Simbankabo, the programme was designed as a school break initiative bringing together young people aged 7 to 20 from the Kinyinya community.
The format was deliberately hands-on. Rather than lectures, participants engaged in practical climate skills training, learning to sort waste responsibly, understanding how everyday actions contribute to carbon emissions, and practising water conservation techniques.
119 young people completed the programme, leaving with both environmental knowledge and a greater sense of responsibility toward their community.
Why Kinyinya, and Why Now?
Kinyinya faces real and visible environmental pressures. Poor waste management and rising emissions make climate education not just relevant but urgent for residents, particularly younger ones who will live longest with the consequences.
By running the programme during school holidays, the Kigali Council targeted a window often overlooked in formal education: unstructured time that can either reinforce harmful habits or introduce new ones. The programme chose the latter.
Addressing young people aged 7 to 20 also meant reaching across a formative range, from children developing habits for the first time to older youth capable of influencing peers and families around them.
From Awareness to Behavioural Change
Climate education is only as effective as the behaviour it shapes.
Intore mu Biruhuko was designed with this in mind. Workshops focused not just on knowledge transfer but on practical habit-building, the kind that travels home with a participant and into the wider community.
When a young person learns to separate organic waste from plastics, or understands why single-use plastics are harmful, that knowledge doesn't stay in the classroom. It changes how they act, and often how those around them act too.
The programme aimed to strengthen environmental awareness and foster behavioural change at the community level, a grassroots approach to a challenge that too often gets addressed only through top-down policy.
Local Climate Action That Earned Global Recognition
Rwanda has positioned itself as a country committed to environmental stewardship. But national policy needs community-level reinforcement to create lasting cultural change.
Initiatives like Intore mu Biruhuko demonstrate that impactful climate education does not require large-scale infrastructure or significant funding. It requires structured programming, community focus, and young people given the tools to act.
The QS ImpACT Climate Education Youth Award 2025 brought this work wider visibility, and with it, the opportunity to inspire similar programmes in other communities facing comparable challenges.
Be Part of the Change
Are you building climate solutions in your community?
Applications for the QS ImpACT Awards 2026 are now open. Whether you're advancing climate education, community impact, or sustainable development, your work deserves recognition. Apply now: https://qsimpact.org/awards2026/
Because the next generation of climate leaders isn't waiting for permission. They're already in action.
QS ImpACT is a UK-registered charity and the global SDG incubator for a better world. Our global community of young people grows and earns recognition for driving positive social and environmental impact. Through strategic collaborations with universities, organisations, and communities, we equip young leaders with the skills, networks, and platforms needed to turn purpose into action. To date, QS ImpACT has engaged young people across 120+ countries, contributing 235,000+ volunteer hours and impacting 383,000+ people globally.
The culmination of the 2025 calendar year was marked by the first ever QS ImpACT Youth Summit 2025, our flagship global sustainability event designed for and by young leaders. Held alongside the QS Reimagine Education Awards, the Summit brought together youth, universities, educators, and forward-thinking organisations to explore how leadership, technology, and innovation can accelerate progress on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Summit also featured the QS ImpACT Awards 2025, celebrating outstanding youth-led initiatives and innovations across sustainability, climate action, education, health, gender equality, and community impact. Together, these programmes highlight the power of young changemakers to drive meaningful change and address some of the world’s most pressing challenges.