Introducing Bow Seat Alumni Advisor – Keren-happuch Garba!

September 3, 2025

By Keren-happuch Garba, Bow Seat Alumni Advisor 

When I was 13, I experienced water scarcity. The wells in my home dried up, and the farmlands were brown with dust, hosting stick-thin plants. Water had hidden in the earth and was too shy to make an appearance. For the 2021 Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Contest, I shared this story through a poem titled Broken. My passion for combating climate-induced water scarcity led me to write several other pieces and manage a project that improved portable water access to my community. In 2023, I became a True Blue Fellow for the project “Sinking a borehole for the Wusasa community”, an achievement that has shaped the course of my advocacy.

Currently, I am a Bow Seat alumni advisor working together with the incredible Tana Valmond (also an Alumni Advisor) and the Bow Seat team to create strategies to engage with Bow Seat alumni.

Through Bow Seat, I was allowed to share my story and make a difference in my community, which I consider a very powerful experience. With an alumni network of over 40,000 people, there is bold evidence of the power of the creative arts in making a significant impact on lives and on our blue planet.

So, whether you were a Contest participant, a True Blue Fellow, or a Future Blue Youth Council member, your story is inspiring and making positive impacts in more ways than you may think. As Michael Margolis said, “The stories we tell literally make the world.”

The Bow Seat team and I are asking that you share your story with us by rejoining us in this journey as a Bow Seat alumn in protecting and advocating for our blue planet with the creative arts.

We have launched two special programs for Bow Seat alumni globally, which are:

1. Alumni Spotlight Series: You may have seen a couple of blog posts about Bow Seat alumni sharing their stories. If you haven’t, you might want to check them out. In monthly installments, the Alumni Spotlight Series celebrates Bow Seat alumni who are making a positive impact through their work.
2. Alumni Art-making Hangouts: One-hour virtual art-making events where Bow Seat alumni can make art such as poetry, painting, creative writing, and lots more while listening to music. Also, we get to play fun games.

While we love working to find ways to engage with you more, we can’t do this without you. We’d love to hear from you. Please send us your feedback on our programs or even stories about your environmental work at [email protected]

Looking forward to hearing from you!

– Keren-happuch