Jo-Jikum: Empowering Marshallese Youth to Face Down Climate Change

Jo-Jikum, meaning "Your Home" in Marshallese, is a youth-led nonprofit founded in 2012 to help young Marshall Islanders develop their own responses to climate change and the country's nuclear legacy. The group runs recurring Climate Adaptation Arts Seminars blending traditional weaving, photography, and songwriting with climate science — its July-August 2025 seminar alone engaged more than 50 Marshallese youth from across the atolls, building on a 2021 seminar that reached 39 students. Jo-Jikum also trains youth citizen scientists to monitor groundwater wells for climate-linked contamination and runs a Climate Disaster Relief Fund that sends money directly to families whose homes are damaged by king tides and flooding. Co-founded and led by poet and climate activist Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, it is one of the most visible youth voices from the Marshall Islands at international climate summits.