Give to Gain IWD2026: The third and final of a three-part series that highlights Women in Micronesia this International Women’s Day. It forms part of the Federated States of Micronesia National Adaptation Plan Project funded by the Green Climate Fund, implemented by SPREP in partnership with the Government of FSM and Haskoning New Zealand.
Meet Christine Robert. Christine was raised in Micronesia. Her life has been shaped by island rhythms — family, church, land, and the everyday work of women.
Today, she's working with the Chuuk Women's Council's Young Women Empowerment program, empowering girls aged 13-22 with knowlegde and skills to make informed decisions about their bodies, education, wellness, finances, and overall future. They plant vegetables together. They learn sewing and handicrafts. They cook and share meals.
It is empowerment in its most practical form. But climate change has entered these conversations too.
When asked whether women worry about climate change, Christine answers without hesitation. “Especially the older ladies,” she says. “They’re worried about the sea level rise and how their soil is getting washed away.”
She saw it herself when she returned to one of her home islands for the first time in more than ten years. What she found was not what she remembered.
“There used to be rocks, beach, and then the water,” she recalls. “When I went back… it was just the cement and water.”
She had dressed expecting to walk on sand and stones. “We were just walking in water.” Ankle-deep. Between houses.
The shoreline had shifted. The land had been eaten away by waves. What once felt solid now feels uncertain.
Christine notices that it is often the older women who feel this change most deeply. They are the ones still working the land. The ones planting. The ones watching the soil. The younger generation, she says, are busy with school and less connected to farming.
“The older ones are more worried about climate change than the younger ones.”
For the women tending gardens, the change is constant. Before, crops could be planted and checked days later. Now, they must be monitored daily. “Now they have to do it every day just to make sure the plants don’t die.”
The heat is stronger. The sun harsher. Heavy rain floods gardens. Food prices rise. Work increases. “There will be more work added to them,” she says simply.
Climate change, in Christine’s view, is not gender neutral.
But she is not only observing impacts — she is building awareness.
Through local Women’s Council, she and her colleagues have introduced small-scale adaptation techniques. Instead of planting directly in the ground, women use rice bags filled with soil and fertiliser — movable gardens that can be shifted during heavy rain or extreme heat.
“We tried giving them options… so when it’s really hot or during heavy rains, they can move them around.”
They also build raised planting beds — simple “table-size” structures — to protect vegetables from flooding.
Practical. Local. Low-cost.
Yet for Christine, the biggest gap is not only resources. It is awareness.
“I think the first thing we need is to raise more awareness… especially on the effects of climate change and what they can do.”
Too often, she says, communities ask for the only solutions they know because it is the only option they have heard about. Without information about alternatives, consultation becomes limited. Choices cannot be fully informed if options are not visible.
“That’s why we need more awareness.”
When asked what message she would give to decision-makers, Christine’s answer is steady: “To help the ones that are really in the most vulnerable communities.”
She worries that assistance often stays in central areas, while more remote communities remain unseen. You cannot understand urgency from an office. You have to go out. You have to walk the flooded paths between houses. You have to stand where people are standing. Sometimes ankle-deep.
Because climate change, gender inequality, economic strain, and social vulnerability are not separate issues. They meet in daily life — in gardens, in kitchens, in flooded walkways.
And it is often women who are standing at that intersection.
Did you know?
Women perform 2.5 times more unpaid care work than men — a burden that increases during climate crises. Source: UNSDA, Gender Snapshot 2025
This is the final part of a three-part series profiling Women in Micronesia for the Give to Gain International Women’s Day wave with SPREP. . This International Women’s Day let’s Give to Gain, together! For the full Women in Micronesia resource please visit:https://library.sprep.org/content/international-womens-day-2026-women-micronesia