The greatest force for change across Cameroon today is not money, machinery or institutions. Change in this Central African country today is being driven mostly by the power of its committed youth. You would easily agree to this if you did follow the previous presidential elections in Cameroon. 

Young people who believe their communities deserve better, who understand that small actions, when repeated and multiplied over time, can transform a nation, have refused to sit and watch their environment degrade. This is the story of Eco Game Changers Cameroon, an environmental NGO founded by two Cameroonian youth – Beverly Ndifoin and Patu Ndango Fen.

This “youth-led movement” has been relentlessly active in streets, schools and neighbourhoods with the goal of turning environmental concerns into collective action. They’ve been involved in activities such as planting trees, reducing waste, training their peers on the why and how to protect the environment. Their commitment and impact are proof that society grows stronger when young people lead with purpose. Besides protecting the environment, Game Changers is also building a new social fabric where creativity, responsibility and hope take root.

Who are Eco Game Changers and Why It Matters

Game Changers 237 describes itself as a Cameroonian youth-led movement that “promotes the creation of innovative solutions to environmental challenges such as deforestation, waste management and climate change.”

They have as mission “Build stewards of our common home – The Environment!”
and vision “A world where people and the environment thrive!”

In a country – and continent – where environmental degradation, rapid urbanisation and climate-related risks are converging, the role of youth-led, community-based organisations becomes very vital. Game Changers fill the critical gap of translating general climate and sustainability goals into local, tangible action that builds social cohesion, empowers young people, mobilizes businesses to join the cause and strengthens community resilience.  

What They Do: Activities That Build Society

In their words,“Our environment is depleting. Climate change is one of the most concerning crises of our time. Everyone has a role to play in addressing this challenge.” While urging everyone to put their hands on deck to address this burning issue, Game Changers have been involved in tree planting, waste collection, waste recycling, capacity building and climate advocacy across the country.

Tree Planting

By organizing tree-planting drives, Game Changers help communities reclaim degraded land, reduce carbon impact and create green spaces that improve wellbeing. These drives also foster collective responsibility – neighbours, youth volunteers, local institutions working together – which in turn builds social bonds and civic engagement. With the help of students and volunteers, Game Changers have planted 25 trees at Government Primary School Bastos, 10 trees at Kamza Bilingual College Ahala and 200 trees around the Yaounde Central Lake. This was made possible through their partnerships with the Italian Embassy and Standard Chartered Bank.

Waste Collection and Recycling

Game Changers engage in waste-collection campaigns and recycling efforts. These initiatives go beyond clean-ups as they highlight the value of circular economy thinking, create opportunities for local entrepreneurship (recycled goods, materials) and not only prove that ordinary citizens can turn waste into value but also encourage them to do so. Game Changers take the fight to the people, engage them, and this strengthens community resilience and underlines the link between environmental health and human wellbeing. It is one thing to set policies in air-conditioned conference rooms, but it is another thing to take them to the field and make the people see why they should be involved in it. In 2022, Game Changers, in collaboration with some partners, implemented the #TrashChallenge activity which involved the collection of plastic waste at the Biyem-Assi and Cité des Nations neighbourhoods in Yaounde.

Capacity Building

The organization understands the crucial role of education and communication in changing minds and recruiting as many people as possible to join the cause of protecting our planet. To this effect, it lays emphasis on training and empowering young people, journalists and community actors to become advocates, change-agents and stewards of the environment. For example, they train journalists to “use the power of the media to shine light on stories that are moving the plant forward.” Capacity building ensures that environmental action becomes embedded in minds, institutions and everyday behaviour – helping build a society where citizens are informed, engaged and proactive.

Climate Advocacy

Game Changers mobilise businesses to make concrete commitments toward a zero-emission future, and work to raise awareness about climate change across communities. In doing so, they are connecting local action to global movements: helping Cameroon engage with climate responsibility and giving people a sense that they are part of something larger than themselves.

The Advancing Water Security through Environmental Science Education Project

The Eco Game Changers recently carried out the pilot phase of the transformative water project called Advancing Water Security through Environmental Science Education successfully at Montessori Secondary and High School Santchou, Cameroon. This was done in collaboration with some of its international partners, including Notre Dame University in the United States and other stakeholders.

The initiative aimed to address ongoing challenges related to access to safe and reliable drinking water while promoting environmental science education among students.

The project focused on strengthening water security by addressing three key concerns: availability, accessibility, and safety of water. As part of the intervention, a water system where water is pumped from a well into a storage tank, filtered and distributed through taps, providing students and staff with improved access to potable water was developed for the school. This infrastructure upgrade significantly enhanced the school’s water supply, which had previously been uncertain in both quality and reliability.

Beyond infrastructure, the project emphasized education and sustainability as it made the students and administration a part of it. Through hands-on workshops, students were trained to test water quality using chemical test strips and learned how to construct a simple bio-sand filter prototype using locally available materials such as gravel, sand, cotton and cloth. These practical sessions empowered students with the knowledge and skills to assess and improve water quality both at school and at home.

More than just providing immediate solutions, this project builds local capacity by equipping students with scientific knowledge and practical tools to address water challenges within their communities. In a statement, Beverly Ndifoin explained that “our hope for this project is to replicate it in other schools. This is just a pilot phase for this school. Hopefully, we can […] mobilize more partners and more stakeholders and be able to move this project and […] wash in schools as we want to call it.”

This long-term vision is to replicate the project in other schools across Cameroon, expanding awareness around water, hygiene and sanitation (WASH) while fostering innovation and self-reliance among young people is a not only great but also life-changing.

While in primary school, my classmates and I always had to wait for the long-break bell to go so we could go to nearest houses around to beg for water to quench our thirst. That there’s action being taken to ensure that kids in schools don’t have to worry about clean drinking water gives so much hope for the future.

Through this partnership-driven effort, Game Changers and its collaborators have not only improved access to safe water at Montessori Secondary and High School Santchou but have also laid the foundation for sustainable, community-led solutions to water insecurity.

Impact: Real Numbers, Real Lives

Game Changers list impressive metrics on their website: 300 climate commitments, 200 volunteers, 1,000+ people empowered and 20 environmental awareness events. Through their testimonial section we learn of young Cameroonians whose lives have been transformed by joining the movement – students discovering their purpose, careers aligning with sustainability themes and local leaders and businesses moving up to the challenge.

Nebah Bernarden NGU had this to say about her experience working with Game Changers:

“I was born and raised in a rural setting where the environment provided me and my family with a lot of resources to live on. Fuel wood for cooking, water we fetched from the streams for our laundry, trees we harvested fruits from for private consumption and many others. These activities made me develop so much love for the environment and nature in general.”

Such stories show how environmental action becomes a platform for personal growth and community renewal.

Building Society: Beyond the Green

What makes Game Changers especially significant is how their environmental work aligns with broader societal benefits:

• Youth Empowerment and Leadership: By focusing on young people as leaders, Game Changers build capacity for the next generation of decision-makers. This strengthens the foundation of the society and ensures a better future.
• Community Cohesion: Activities like clean-ups and tree-planting bring diverse community members together around a common goal, reinforcing social trust.
• Economic Opportunity: Recycling, environmental services and green commitments open up employment and entrepreneurship possibilities – for waste-collectors, youth groups, community enterprises – while making sure that we live in a better world. This is like shooting two birds with a stone.
• Health and Well-being: Cleaner environments mean fewer health risks, better living conditions, and improved quality of life, especially for vulnerable populations.
• Global-Local Linkages: By connecting Cameroon’s local action to global climate commitments, Game Changers help communities see their role in a wider movement – this fosters pride, agency and a sense of purpose. Instead of just being passive, communities become actively engaged in protecting their environments.

Challenges and Future Pathways

No organization works in a silo. Game Changers operates in a context where infrastructure gaps, funding limitations, awareness‐deficits and climate uncertainty pose real obstacles. Scaling such work, ensuring long-term impact and integrating with national systems remain ongoing tasks.
Yet, the very fact that they are youth-led, locally grounded and action-oriented gives them a strength many larger organizations aspire to: rooted legitimacy, adaptability and relational power.

Looking ahead, the organization’s future pathways likely include deeper partnerships (with government, private sector, global networks), scaling their capacity-building programmes and embedding their model into schools and local institutions across Cameroon and beyond.

Call to Action

For change to truly be effective, individuals, businesses and communities must not only join, but also be active in playing their respective roles. Game Changers get the various stakeholders to commit in the protection of the environment through planting trees, organizing clean-up campaigns, mentoring the youth, having entrepreneurs pledge a low-carbon business practice. Their motto – “A greener and cleaner planet starts with me!” –  clearly reminds each and every one of us that we all have a role to play.

Game Changers isn’t just an environmental NGO, it is a societal builder. Through planting trees, mobilising youth, training change-makers and weaving environmental action into daily life, it helps shape stronger communities, equip citizens to be empowered and drive progress towards a healthier planet. In Cameroon’s journey towards sustainable development, Game Changers is helping write a new chapter – one where people and nature thrive together.

I caught up with Beverly Ndifoin – co-founder and President of Game Changers – and had the following exchange with her:

Q. What personal experience or moment pushed you to create Game Changer, and why did you believe youth had to be at the centre of this movement?

Growing up in rural Cameroon, I spent every planting season on my mother’s farms. Over the years, I watched rainfall patterns become unpredictable, sometimes arriving before we tilled the soil and other times too late after seedlings have withered, causing harvests to dwindle. I did not know the word climate change, but I wondered why this was happening and if anything could be done. It was not until I became a Weather News Presenter on CRTV that I was drawn to the science behind the changing climate. It occurred to me that young people and posterity will likely face the worst impacts of climate change if concrete steps are not taken to drawdown temperatures to below 1.5 degrees as recommended by the Paris Agreement in 2015. So, when I quit my journalism job and started the Game Changers movement, I knew youth had to be at the center, because we’re the ones who will live with the consequences longest, yet we are often excluded from decision-making. 

Q. When you look back at your journey, which project or experience best captures the impact Game Changers is having on communities, and why?

Our plastic waste retrieval projects in 2022 stands out to me. We mobilized over 200 volunteers to retrieve about 10,000 kilograms of plastic waste from landfills in Cameroon’s capital city of Yaounde. These plastics went directly for recycling by our partner company “Namé Recycling”, creating more green jobs for youth and promoting a circular economy.

Q. Cameroon faces many environmental challenges. How does your organization decide which issues to tackle first, and what makes your approach unique compared to others?

We prioritize based on the main criteria: immediate community impact, youth engagement potential and scalability. Plastic waste removal from landfills made sense as our first campaign because the littering was very visible on our streets and we could easily mobilize young people to act on it without waiting for massive funding. Also, this felt urgent when we saw reports that Cameroon generates approximately 600,000 tons of plastic waste annually.

Q. Game Changers is youth-led. What transformations – in terms of their confidence, skills or leadership – have you witnessed in young volunteers because of their involvement?

The transformations are really profound. I have seen leadership skills develop among our volunteers. Some who were very shy became confident public speakers, representing our movement on different occasions. Some got inspired to further their education in environmental science and sustainable development abroad, like Mohamed (Harvard University, USA) and Beryl (KU Leuven University, Belgium) – including myself (University of Notre Dame, USA). What I love the most is the sense of agency our movement has created in them as they no longer wait for someone else to solve their problems. They see challenges and instinctively ask: “What can we do about this right away?”

There’s hardly anything as inspiring as young people taking on game-changing leadership roles in a click-and-view rush era where distraction is the new attraction.

Tubuo