A letter from our Co-Directors, Kate Metcalf and Zarina Ahmad
1st October 2025
Kate:
Wen has been championing environmental justice for over 30 years, putting women’s voices at the centre and challenging systems that ignore them. We’ve always believed in a feminist, intersectional approach, long before it was mainstream.
Our five-year strategy, launched in January 2025, is about focus, impact and justice. It’s our roadmap to take Wen’s work to the next level, setting out the change we want to see, and how we’ll get there. And our impact report 2024/2025 shows our first steps towards achieving that.
In our impact report ‘WOMEN LEADING THE WAY TO ENVIRONMENTAL AND GENDER JUSTICE’, you will see examples of how we are working towards our vision of a feminist future where women and the planet thrive. You will hear stories of the impact of our work and the strength of our partnerships to drive change.
Highlights include our Feminist Toxic Free Futures work, and our urgent call for a Menstrual Health, Dignity and Sustainability Act, as part of our Environmenstrual Campaign, supported by Baroness Natalie Bennett, leading academics, the Royal College of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians, and around 40 other organisations and experts.
We also met with Defra Minister Emma Hardy, with other chemical focussed NGOs, calling for alignment with the EU REACH chemicals policy and bringing gendered and intersectional perspective on the impacts of toxic chemicals on women’s health.
By supporting reusable nappy uptake through our Real Nappies for London project, we prevented 982 tonnes of disposable nappy waste, saving an estimated £109,984 in disposal costs for councils in 2024/25.
Our priorities are bold. We want to: put gender, racial and social equity at the heart of climate policy, amplify the voices of racialised and marginalised women, improve health and wellbeing through nature, build movements for feminist climate justice, and grow Wen as a strong, values-led organisation.
I’m so proud of how intersectional feminism informs how we are structured, how we lead, and how we make decisions. And I’m thrilled to now share this role with Zarina, having welcomed her as Co-Director in January 2025. Collaboration is at the heart of how we work, and I couldn’t be prouder of the journey we’re on together.
Zarina:
I’m delighted to have joined Kate as Co-Director. My career has been about making sure underrepresented groups have a place in environmentalism, and Wen is where that work can flourish.
That’s why I celebrate our expansion of Wen’s Climate Sisters movement with new funding from the Climate Action Fund.
Another highlight for me is our work through the relaunched Tower Hamlets Food Partnership, driving food and climate justice across the Borough. We have also influenced local policy in Tower Hamlets with the Council making food systems the focus of its five-year public health strategy, inspired by Just FACT, coordinated by Wen.
Injustice doesn’t affect everyone equally. A woman’s race, class, wealth, disability or migration status all shape her experience. That’s why intersectionality runs through everything we do, from the projects we design, to the people we recruit, to the language we use.
We’re committed to being anti-racist every single day. This report shows we continue to lead the way on diversity in the sector, with our staff, our board, and through our involvement in the Race Report. And decolonising our practice means shifting power, listening more, and telling stories differently to change the dominant narrative of history, identity, and belonging that has excluded too many for too long.
Yes, the challenges we face in terms of the climate crisis, growing inequality, political polarisation, war and genocide are huge, but so is our hope. Real change comes when women and communities lead. Together, we can build a greener, fairer future rooted in justice. And that’s exactly what Wen is about.
We know what is possible when we join together in feminist solidarity, and we hope the ‘WOMEN LEADING THE WAY TO ENVIRONMENTAL AND GENDER JUSTICE: Impact Report 20204/2025’ helps inspire and reenergise you in the fight for environmental and gender justice.
In solidarity,
Kate and Zarina
