Organizers across the country are making a difference this election cycle as part of LCV’s GreenRoots program by mobilizing LCV members to knock on doors, make phone calls, and connect with voters in support of pro-environment candidates up and down the ballot. Among this group of dedicated organizers is Achol, an organizer and healthcare worker based in Phoenix, Arizona. Her steadfast commitment to environmental and social justice comes from a strong sense of community and responsibility to make sure everyone’s voices are heard, not just the rich and powerful. 

Achol and her family immigrated to Buffalo, New York when Achol was five years old after fleeing the civil war in Sudan. Growing up in Buffalo, one of the most impoverished cities in the nation with a large immigrant and refugee population, Achol and her family dealt with increased exposure to pollution and a lack of access to greenspace. Her experience led her to become involved in environmental justice advocacy.

“I come from a low-income, marginalized community with a lot of Black and Brown people and I’ve noticed that a lot of our community members have health related issues due to climate change and pollution,” she said. “I believe that people have the right to live a life that is of quality, that they deserve clean air, clean water, and that they should not be put at risk, especially their health, because they are low income or because they’re marginalized.”

Achol, informed by her own experience and identities as a refugee, an Indigenous Sudanese person, a woman of color, and many others, is keenly aware of the interconnectedness of our world. Her advocacy is motivated by how pollution from the U.S. and other major industrial nations is driving climate change, famine, unrest, and social injustice in other parts of the world. She is also motivated by the idea that even the small things she does can make a difference in someone’s life thousands of miles away.

“The fight that I’m in is not just for me. We live in a world where [things happening in] one part of the world affects everything,” she said.

She began volunteering with political causes in college and remained involved in local campaigns after graduation. Her first formal organizing experience came just last year with an organization that advocates for racial, economic, and police justice, and she hasn’t looked back.

Her favorite part about organizing, she says, is the ability to connect with people and learn what they need and how different issues affect their lives. “When I am canvassing and recruiting people, it feels like I’m working within my community. I’m working alongside my neighbors and community members and building solidarity,” she said.

This election cycle, Achol has been working to support Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign and Ruben Gallego’s U.S. Senate bid by recruiting LCV members to volunteer. For Achol, Harris’ historical presidential campaign “means that people who look like me, who come from a low-income background, and … little girls who look like Kamala, little Black and Brown girls… have a chance.” She is proud to be doing this work and fighting for positive change in her community and beyond.

But this work and the fight for equity and environmental justice don’t end after November 5th, and Achol has no plans to step out of the ring.

“Regardless of the outcome of this election, we are continuing to fight and to hold people accountable and to push progressive policies that will lead to environmental protections and to holding corporations and polluters accountable. We are very firm in our beliefs and we are very excited to continue to fight forward.”