Camilla Thurlow is best known for winning hearts as a Love Island 2017 contestant and talking movingly about mental health, most strikingly on Elizabeth Day’s podcast How To Fail.
Now, the 30-year-old – who is anything but your typical reality TV star (she has worked as a bomb disposal expert) – is joining a line of stars at the March4Women in London this weekend.
Ahead of the event, we had an exclusive chat with her where she told us she's passionate about gender equality and worries the climate crisis will hit women and girls most catastrophically.
‘I spent years working in the humanitarian field, working in Mozambique and Zimbabwe, so the climate crisis and gender equality are both issues which are close to my heart,’ she says.
‘Around the globe, it’s women and girls who are bearing the burden of the climate crisis. Women are more likely to live in poverty than men, so they are less able to cope with the erratic weather that accompanies climate change, such as droughts, floods and storms.’
Women are more likely to live in poverty than men, so they are less able to cope with the erratic weather that accompanies climate change, such as droughts, floods and storms.
At this year’s #March4Women, she will be using her platform to bring attention to those at the sharp end of the climate crisis: those living through climate-related natural disasters, such as the current drought in Zimbabwe and Cyclone Idai in Mozambique.
Camilla will be part of a group of people reading powerful testimonies on Sunday. The speeches are the real words of those currently being affected by climate change.
Speaking about how the march is an opportunity for us all to take to the streets to do our bit to demand climate justice and gender equality, Camilla adds: ‘The climate crisis can seem like an insurmountable issue, but there are lots of steps individuals can take to lessen their carbon footprint. We can also put pressure on governments, including our own, to make changes which are essential to halting global heating. Women are generally under-represented in decision-making roles, and this is true with climate negotiations. Governments need to support women as climate leaders.’
The march, which will take place on International Women’s Day this Sunday, is a global movement for gender equality run by CARE International: it’s for anyone who wants to see a more equal world. The opening rally will be hosted by BBC’s Emma Barnett and see performances from Emeli Sandé, RAYE, Urban Voices Collective and Bond quartet. There will also be speeches from the likes of Helen Pankhurst , Bianca Jagger and Natalie Dormer.
The indoor March4Women rally at the WOW festival will start at 12.00 and finish at 13.15. Tickets for the rally are on sale on the Southbank Centre website****.
Following the rally attendees will be guided over the river to Whitehall Place to the muster point for the march through Central London starting at 1.30pm, which will finish with a closing rally in Parliament Square from 2.15pm. For full details: www.careinternational.org.uk/march4women
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