Our Programs

In 2008, Greening Forward’s founder, Charles Orgbon imagined a possibility where a student-led organization could support other student-led environmental and climate projects around the United States, and eventually around the world. Despite being only 12-years-old, he believed in the power of young people to drive the most transformative change needed to solve the global climate crisis.

Greening Forward’s message resonated with young people far and wide. From the Carolina’s Lowcountry to the Mikiki Valley to the Bronx, students were hungry for an organization self-determined by peers just like themselves that would help them find community and resources to support their projects.

Greening Forward changed the culture in the United States for many adults on what authentic youth leadership could and should look like, and today there are now more youth-led climate organizations working from coast to coast. This has been good news for Greening Forward, however, it challenged us to question in 2023 whether the United States continued to need yet another national youth climate organization.

We ultimately looked to the young people of Cameroon and they enthusiastically requested that we partner with them. Now, Greening Forward exists formerly as a US-based organization, and presently as an organization helping to establish a homegrown movement of young Cameroonians for the protection of their communities and environment.