Investing in young women is not charity. It is a sustainable strategy: Lerato's story.

Mamelodi is a vibrant township in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Like many urban communities across the region, life here moves with an energetic rhythm. But beneath the surface, a critical life source has begun to falter. The infrastructure that once consistently supplied water to families has increasingly come under severe strain, leaving taps dry and communities in limbo.

"I saw at a young age how we struggled with access to water," said Lerato, a water science practitioner and Young Urban Women activist. "One day our communal standpipes just suddenly ran dry. We relied heavily on rainwater, but rain wasn't consistent."

Lerato’s life, much like that of many South Africans, has been shaped by a fluid connection between urban spaces and ancestral roots. Every December, her family would make the annual pilgrimage back home to their rural province. It was across these dual landscapes that she first witnessed the harsh realities of water scarcity.

These early experiences did not discourage Lerato, instead, they ignited a deep curiosity. Some of the most important things she has learned stemmed from spending hours observing polluted local streams, volunteering, and asking older residents how the natural landscape had changed since their youth. She chose to study water science at a tertiary level, determined to understand the technical mechanics behind the shortages she saw.

"My academic background was just the cherry on top," Lerato explained. "Everything started when I was a child."

Across Gauteng's townships, many residents face the same daily uncertainty. When water cuts hit, the burden does not fall equally. Lerato watched closely as the systemic failures of local infrastructure translated into a quiet, heavy crisis within households.

"Women and girls are affected differently during periodical water cuts, sewage spillages, or even illegal dumping," Lerato noted. "They are the ones who carry the burden of responsibility."

Change entered a new phase when Lerato connected with the Young Urban Women Movement (YUWM). The movement did not create Lerato’s ambition, but it provided a collective network where her voice could expand. It brought together young women to analyse their shared realities through a socio-economic and political lens. For Lerato, the movement offered something that technical textbooks had left out: a network of solidarity.

"I would say the Young Urban Women Movement added that social science aspect of my studies," Lerato reflects. "In fact, it challenged me a great deal. I've always been the water quality and monitoring, 'let's take care of our rivers' girlie. And what Young Urban Women did was challenge my thinking by involving a very critical stakeholder; the immediate community. That the environment exists with the people in it, so in order to conserve natural resources,[you need to] ensure that the people are aware of these resources and fully understand their role in them. That's where I saw how I could fit into the YUWM."

This network allowed her to ground her scientific data in the raw, lived experiences of township women. Seeing other young activists standing firm in their truth encouraged Lerato to step fully into her power as a leader.

"It allowed me to speak about the water woes we've experienced in some parts of the province," she explained with a smile. "Seeing the network of activists within the movement has really encouraged me to not hold back."

Lerato decided to bring this dual expertise of scientific training and community reality into formal spaces. Before joining the program, Lerato was already a trained scientist who knew of the formal governance structures in her field. In fact, she had already set her sights on the South Africa Youth Parliament for Water committee before joining YUW.

"I knew of the committee way before the YUW program," Lerato said. "YUW came afterwards, and it helped me build on my confidence as an activist."

She was recently selected to lead the Gauteng team for the Youth Parliament for Water. Where policy conversations are typically dominated by engineers and politicians talking about budgets and infrastructure, Lerato is introducing a completely different dataset: the lens of unpaid care work.

Her strategic focus for the Youth Parliament for Water centres on turning everyday household survival into political evidence. “Through my involvement in the YUWM as well as other environmental spaces, I have learned that these experiences are often missing from formal policy,” she said.

She highlights the specific, unquantified labour women perform during environmental crises:

“They [women] are the ones who had the burden of responsibility to care for sick family members, making sure children do not play near overflowing sewage, queuing for water when the taps have run dry and still carry the emotional burden of keeping households functioning.”

These systemic insights were sharpened through her dual identity as a township resident and an active participant in environmental advocacy spaces.

"In the Youth Parliament for Water, I want to make sure that conversations about water governance are not only technical, but also human-centred," Lerato explained. "I want the lived experiences of various community actors, including young women and girls, to shape the agenda."

Lerato’s leadership represents a critical shift in how development and climate adaptation should be approached. Her entry into governance reflects a wider pattern observed among young women who are claiming space in policy environments.

Her trajectory highlights an essential lesson that extends far beyond Gauteng. While many institutions view development assistance through the paternalistic lens of aid, Lerato’s journey demonstrates that young women do not need pity, they need structural access.

Supporting approaches like the Young Urban Women Movement proves that when young women are given resources and spaces to organize, meaningful leadership emerges organically from the ground up. For organizations like ActionAid South Africa, continuing to invest in young urban women is a direct investment in sustainable, long-term climate strategy. These women are already holding communities together during environmental crises and their leadership is what connects local ground realities to global climate policy.

Across Africa, where climate variations directly impact water security, initiatives that amplify local, intersectional leadership offer a sustainable pathway for true resource transformation. For Lerato, however, the most profound reflection is not just the political platform she has earned. It is the lesson she carries for the next generation of girls looking at her from the streets of Mamelodi, girls who feel that big, intimidating conference rooms were not built for them.

"I would tell her that I also started as a young person from the township who simply cared deeply about the environment around me," she reflected. "You do not need to wait until you feel 'perfect' or fully ready to participate. Start where you are. Leadership grows through participation. I am evidence of that."

Today, Lerato continues to analyse water systems, lead her parliamentary team, and challenge formal structures to look at water through a human face. Her message to the world, and to institutions like ActionAid, remains clear and uncompromised:

"Investing in young women is not charity. It is a sustainable strategy… That investment will continue to create ripple effects far beyond one individual."