Kezia Johnson, former Head Girl of North Eleuthera High School and current student at the University of Central Arkansas (studying communication sciences and disorders), was selected by UNESCO to represent The Bahamas at the 14th UNESCO Youth Forum. The event, scheduled on October 27–28, 2025, in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, was held under the theme “Climate Action and Social Impacts, Particularly for Young People.”

Kezia shared that she views UNESCO’s mission as a commitment to peace and security through international cooperation in education, science, and culture. ATV News asked Kezia what allowed her to represent The Bahamas on such a stage. She explained that the journey began back in high school, where she took part in numerous public speaking exercises.

Johnson said, “In high school, I did a lot of public speaking. And about a year ago, I got the opportunity to be the youth speaker for the Climate Guardian Workshop held by our Bahamas UNESCO Commission and the Secretary General for the UNESCO Commission, Ms. Dedree Bevins. She told me that she would keep me in mind for any other opportunities… just like give me a heads up if anything happens.

And in June of this year, she called me up and she told me to send in my resume and everything I’ve done as it relates to climate activism and youth empowerment. And I was nominated by our commission, and UNESCO chose me as the representative for The Bahamas. I really have a love for climate change activism, anything as it relates to climate justice, youth empowerment, especially relating to young women and girls, and properly representing SIDS which are small island developing states such as the Bahamas.”

At the Youth Forum, 140 delegates from around the world gathered with the purpose of representing their individual countries and collaborating on solutions for global challenges. Kezia provided a briefing on the responsibilities of the delegation and the importance of their role.

“We each had the responsibility of representing our country, in I would say the best possible way. I absolutely loved it. We were making recommendations that would be approved by the General Conference, which happened about a week later after the forum, and that would be to implement in our regions and hopefully globally. And it was to better climate resilience and advocate for our use of today and tomorrow.” 

As we wrapped up the interview, ATV News asked Kezia what UNESCO initiative she would launch for The Bahamas if given the opportunity, and why it is important.

“A new UNESCO initiative that I would launch in the Bahamas would be the implementation of proper waste management. This is actually a topic that I've done a lot of research on, and was my focus for my winning essay for the Bahamas Youth Climate Conference Essay Competition in 2023. And I think this is important because we need landfills that would prevent toxins from leaching into our soil. 

There's improper burning of trash and pollution of our mangroves. And this happens more in our family islands due to lack of supervision and manpower. And I also made mention of this several times in the forum. And that is more education should be provided relating to climate change. This would most definitely decrease misinformation. And in response, persons would make a conscious effort to take care of the place we call home.” 

We pray that she continues to do well and that her accomplishments inspire other young Bahamians to pursue opportunities on the world stage.