Many communities know when something is wrong with their environment. They see the soot on their rooftops. They smell the fumes. They notice the dust, smoke, heat, waste burning, industrial activity, traffic emissions, and changes in their health and livelihoods. But too often, what communities know from experience is dismissed because it is not backed by data. BREATHE-COMMUNITY exists to change that. This program helps communities monitor their air, understand environmental risks, document pollution patterns, and use evidence to engage decision-makers. It is designed to give communities the tools, knowledge, and confidence to participate meaningfully in environmental conversations that affect their lives.
Active Communities
Trained Environmental Stewards
Countries with Active Programs
Successful Advocacy Outcomes
Environmental harm is not experienced equally. Some communities live closer to pollution sources, industrial zones, waste sites, gas flaring areas, busy roads, and poorly regulated activities. These communities often carry the health, social, and economic burden of pollution without having access to the data needed to prove what they are facing. This creates a serious gap. Communities may complain, but without monitoring systems, their concerns can be ignored. They may experience health problems, but without environmental evidence, the link to pollution may remain unclear. They may demand accountability, but without credible data, their advocacy becomes harder. BREATHE-COMMUNITY helps bridge this gap by placing environmental intelligence closer to the people most affected.
Common Pollution Sources
Most Vulnerable Groups
01
Supports Community-Owned Air Monitoring
Breatha helps deploy air quality monitoring systems in communities affected by pollution. These monitors provide localized information on air quality conditions and pollution patterns. This gives communities a clearer picture of what they are breathing and when exposure levels may be unsafe.
02
Trains Local Environmental Stewards
BREATHE-COMMUNITY works with local volunteers, youth groups, community leaders, women’s groups, and grassroots organizations to build environmental awareness and data literacy. These environmental stewards help communities understand air quality information, identify pollution concerns, support local reporting, and promote safer practices.
03
Turns Community Experience into Usable Evidence
Through surveys, interviews, community mapping, and environmental monitoring, Breatha helps document the lived realities of pollution. This may include health complaints, household impacts, livelihood disruption, school and workplace exposure, and environmental changes noticed by residents. By combining lived experience with data, BREATHE-COMMUNITY strengthens the evidence communities can use in advocacy.
04
Provides Tools for Advocacy and Engagement
BREATHE-COMMUNITY supports communities with clear reports, visual summaries, policy briefs, and evidence packs that can be shared with government agencies, regulators, NGOs, researchers, and private sector stakeholders. The goal is to help communities engage from a place of knowledge, not helplessness.
05
Promotes Environmental Justice and Accountability
This program helps make environmental conversations more inclusive. It ensures that affected communities are not only spoken about, but also included in the process of data collection, interpretation, and decision-making. BREATHE-COMMUNITY supports the belief that environmental justice begins when communities have the power to understand and speak about what is happening to them.
“Before Breatha, we knew the air was bad but we couldn’t prove it. Now we have data. We took it to the government and they had to listen.”
Victor Okafor
Community Monitor, Port Harcourt
“Our group has become the environmental watchdog for our community. People come to us when they smell something wrong. We check the data and we act.”
Emmanuel Asante
Community Steward, Tema, Ghana
Support BREATHE-COMMUNITY
Your partnership helps us expand this program to more communities and protect more lives across Africa.
Every donation, no matter how big or small, make a significant difference
to our cause. Thank your for doing your part to help.
