At 12, Lesein was playing club football when he came across a startling statistic: his country was losing the equivalent of 138 football fields’ worth of forest every day. He decided to combine his passions for football and nature by planting eleven trees for every goal he scored. The number wasn’t random – each tree represents a team member on the field, “because it takes the entire team to score goals”.

He called his initiative Trees For Goals (T4G) and it soon had the support of Kenyan Forestry Department. Over 10,000 trees have already been planted in partnership with 15 Kenyan schools and football clubs. Lesein has been recognised as a RISE Global Winner (2021), was named one of the Top 100 Young African Conservation Leaders (2022), and is a youth board member of Earth Prize. But he’s not done scoring goals. With global deforestation reported as the second biggest cause of climate change, Lesein is committed to taking T4G global. To find out more, follow T4G on X and Lesein on Instagram.