DEMT is a movement of 2,250 rural youth aged 15–35 organising across 750 villages, 75 administrative wards, and 15 districts in Zimbabwe’s mining regions. The movement was born in 2019 in response to mining expansion under Zimbabwe’s Vision 2030 policy, which accelerated lithium and other critical mineral extraction into rural districts, triggering widespread environmental degradation from excavation, blasting, and chemical use, alongside a surge in community health risks including silicosis, tuberculosis, and HIV linked to rapidly expanding mining economies. Grounded in lived experience and collective reflection, DEMT movement members systematically document and verify environmental and health impacts, organise at village and ward level, and act in disciplined formations to confront violations, assert their rights, and engage directly with mining companies, local authorities, regulators, Parliament, and Zimbabwe’s Chapter 12 Independent Commissions. Through these actions, the movement secures material changes in individual communities and progressive reforms in policy and law - turning rural youth from passive subjects into conscious citizens, organised actors, and strategic negotiators of their future.