As I stepped into the Green Zone of the COP22 this morning, the energy was high and I was ready to dive in. Isabel and I had almost done a lap of one of the huge tents when we reached a booth that had a tank of water and, being a little parched, I grabbed a cup and filled it up with what was labeled as “fog water”. The water was fresh and just what I needed, but I was curious about its name, so Isabel and I inquired about this mysterious “fog water”. We found out that they harvested this water from the fog in Morocco through nets that they manufactured. Having just looked at the stand’s work with water, we thought that was all to their program, but were informed about other projects that they had going on as well.

We spoke in more detail with Abdelhaq and Salma about a program that they have called Environmental Youth Ambassadors (EYA). EYA is a group of seven youth environmental activists of university age who write, make movies, and educate people about environmental issues they are passionate about; they engage the youth in the dialogue about the environment and climate change. Within the program, there is a focus on personal and professional development, as well as project management, computer science, and network building. After hearing this, Isabel and I just looked at each other and smiled; besides the computer science aspect, this was pretty similar to Earthbound. So we told them about what we were doing: traveling through four countries, performing and journaling about climate and social justice. They were so engaged and excited about what we were doing, so we invited them to watch our performance. After the show, Salma approached me overjoyed, even taking a video and putting it on the EYA Instagram! (@eyadarsihmad)

It’s so cool to meet people around the world doing similar work as we are. I should stop places for a sip of water more often!

Written by Sofi Le Berre