Dr. Maia’s journey has been featured in various reports and media outlets, including, the Obama Foundation Report, Columbia Global Centers, Vogue, Ms. Magazine, Humanize Institute, Daughters for Earth, and Forum Verde. Dive into the stories and interviews.

2024 Change Now Paris: One of the 25 Women Shaping the Future

On stage at ChangeNOW – a mega-event for solutions for the planet that takes place annually in Paris – Flávia challenged the idea of ​​building with tomorrow in mind.

“What does that really mean?” she invited the audience to ask, and spoke about the importance of looking to the past as a way to combat the effects of ongoing climate change and build a more just, equitable and regenerative future.

2023 Let’s Get Changed Podcast. From the heart: Centering relationships, self-care, and community in pursuit of climate justice.

Dr. Maia recalls how her own ancestors lived and died amidst great droughts in the Brazilian Northeast and themselves experienced climate-driven migration. We talk about a core feminist values set that helps guide the work of Filha Do Sol, the importance of relationship building and healing as critical in addressing climate issues, and the emerging Women’s Climate School now taking shape under Filha do Sol’s leadership to help provide green jobs, economic independence and much more to women in the tropics.

2023 Forum Verde: Dr. Flávia Neves Maia, Trailblazer. Empowering Climate Leaders in Frontline Communities with Flávia Neves Maia of Filha do Sol.

"What inspires me the most is seeing so many people working to transform and evolve societal systems that don’t serve us anymore. When I see people across every region, from every background, working to transform the world, I get very hopeful. We forget that we are nature. We are not only in a relationship with nature. We are nature as well. Climate action is about improving our relationships with ourselves, others, and the rest of the planet.”

2023 Ms. Magazine: The Sustainable Climate Future Belongs to Women.

“We knew we wanted to do something,” Dr. Maia told me. “I grew up with this awareness of climate change, although we didn’t use the words climate change. My ancestors had to migrate because of drought. So I knew I wanted the impacts of climate change to be in my past, not my future.”

To realize her vision, she turned to other women. Filha do Sol is now training dozens of women on climate justice organizing so that they can become effective community leaders and advocates. Together they hope to build a region-wide network of decentralized women-led coalitions working on climate problems across the Tropics.

Imagine what a woman like Flávia Neves Maia could accomplish if she had the full support of our philanthropic establishment.

2023 Vogue: A contribuição das mulheres marisqueiras do Piauí para a conservação dos mangues e do clima.

A Filha do Sol colabora com organizações locais em vilas tropicais, para aumentar o impacto positivo no clima. A associação está dando suporte ao Caburé na construção de um mandato climático para a Barrinha, no Piauí. "Queremos ajudar a fazer o que consideramos basicamente o trabalho mais importante do mundo: regenerar a natureza e resolver a crise climática. A primeira fase desse programa é a ampliação da consciência."

2022 Columbia Global Center: A different approach to taking on climate change.

Climate, hope, and science don't come together in the same sentence very often, but we believe that this is what will move us forward—this alignment between head, heart, and hands,” said Dr. Maia.

Maia called the framing of the topic a bold move, as many might miss seeing a connection between spirituality and the climate. She said the context of spirituality was not about religion or faith or anything mystical.

“Spirituality is about discussing the meaning of life, what it means to be human in this planet,” she said. “If we want to address the climate crisis, we need to shift the perspective, this materialistic perspective, in which Earth is a rock and humans are living on this rock to a relational perspective where humans are part of the organism, part of Earth.”

2021 Obama Foundation Annual Report: A 2020-2021 Obama Scholar, climate leader, and feminist, Flávia Neves Maia is on a mission to promote justice and gender equality.

Flávia used her year in the Obama Scholars program—and specifically the immersive systems thinking workshops—to co-found Filha do Sol, a Brazilian nonprofit that works to regenerate nature and restore climate justice across the Tropics.”