Shaira Begum
Also working within:
Community Organisers
Decolonising Movements & Diasporas
Based: London
Born in Brick Lane in the heart of the East End of London to
immigrant parents from Bangladesh, Shaira uses intersectional,
lived experiences for positive social change by bringing creative
ways to bring communities together in East London to improve
their lives collectively. She does this through craftivism, working
in women’s refuges using social and therapeutic horticulture,
and making herbal remedies for refugees in Calais. As a POC
grassroots activist, she advocates for more BAME and LGBTQ
+ leadership representation in the environmental sphere. She
has previously worked at Tipping Point UK, Wen (Women’s Environmental Network) and the Ella Baker School of Transformative Organising.
“From the climate emergency, displacement of people, unequal societies, the hostile environment to the rise of racism and fascism, it’s all connected. We have to fight local and global injustices together by bridging communities together and from learning from each other. Women of colour are key to bringing about positive change; quite often these women are working hard for their communities behind the scenes and so its important to see more faces and spaces opening up for them. It would be great if our work influences the next generation of activists and marine biologists.”