In 2017, Mitzi Jonelle Tan went with her college’ s student council on an integration project with the Lumad indigenous people, where one of the leaders told her about how his people were being displaced, harassed, and even killed just for protecting their lands and the environment from extractive mining companies. “The simplicity of how he said something so tragic, in passing, about his way of life… I realized that individual lifestyle change is not enough when peoples’ lives are at stake. It’s on us to do more.” So Mitzi founded Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines ( in partnership with Fridays For Future, to help change the conditions for Most Affected People and Areas ( in the Philippines. She focuses much of her time fighting for Indigenous defenders of the environment. “They are the ones who really keep me going on this journey,” she says. “What I do is easy.”