Programs

India | Sustainable Aquatic Floating Islands (SAFI)

Through Sustainable Aquatic Floating Islands (SAFI), Amairah aims to develop and scale an affordable, community-driven solution for restoring polluted urban water bodies in New Delhi and beyond. Her goal is to significantly reduce harmful pollutants—such as nitrates, phosphates, and ammonia—using nature-based floating bio-islands paired with low-cost, real-time water quality monitoring technology. In the near term, Amairah seeks to demonstrate consistent, measurable improvements in lake health, preventing eutrophication and fish die-offs while validating SAFI as a safe and effective decentralized purification system. Over the longer term, she aims to expand SAFI from pilot lakes to urban drains and additional water bodies across India, integrating improved plant systems and data-driven monitoring to support large-scale adoption. Central to this work is her goal of fostering long-term community stewardship through creative engagement—using design, visual art, and participatory activities to transform the floating islands into shared symbols of care—so that cleaner water is sustained not only through technology, but through informed, empowered communities. 

Egypt | Asfour Initiative

Through the Asfour Initiative, Dana aims to expand an inclusive, creative model of ocean and water literacy that empowers Bedouin children, women, and families to lead conservation storytelling rooted in their own culture. She seeks to produce a filmed puppet-show series scripted and performed by children from Sinai and Nile communities, using puppetry to teach urgent environmental issues—from Red Sea coral bleaching to plastic pollution and water scarcity—in ways that are accessible across generations, abilities, and literacy levels. By pairing these performances with marine animal puppets crafted by Bedouin women using recycled plastic collected by local fishermen, Dana aims to create sustainable livelihoods alongside environmental education. Ultimately, the initiative seeks to amplify historically overlooked voices from Egypt and the wider SWANA region on global platforms, bridging river and ocean conservation while demonstrating how art, culture, and community leadership can reshape who participates in—and leads—blue education and environmental advocacy.

Nigeria | Dyeing for Change: Weaving Climate Hope with Threads of Tradition

Through Dyeing for Change: Weaving Climate Hope with Threads of Tradition, Samuel hopes to make climate action tangible, culturally rooted, and accessible for young people and women in Gombe State, Northern Nigeria. His goal is to use traditional textile weaving and natural dyeing as tools to protect local water bodies, reduce pollution, and spark climate awareness in a way that feels personal and local rather than abstract. By training 30 youth and women in eco-friendly textile practices and engaging more than 500 secondary school students through creative workshops, Samuel aims to empower participants to see culture, fashion, and storytelling as powerful forms of environmental advocacy. He hopes the resulting fabric artworks, public exhibitions, and school engagements will inspire a new generation to connect everyday habits—such as waste disposal and water use—to climate impacts, while also creating pride, skills, and economic opportunity rooted in tradition. Ultimately, Samuel seeks to build a movement where creativity becomes a pathway to water protection, climate education, and long-term community resilience in Gombe.

Nigeria | GreenQuest: Monsters and Threats

Through GreenQuest: Monsters and Threats, Grace is developing a scalable model that converts youth engagement in gaming into ocean and climate action along Nigeria’s coastlines. The Afro-futurist mobile role-playing game draws on African folklore to personify environmental threats—such as plastic pollution, oil spills, and coastal erosion—as “eco-monsters,” transforming climate education into immersive, culturally resonant gameplay. Since launching an alpha version, GreenQuest has engaged more than 2,500 young people, built a waitlist of over 5,000 players, and generated funding that has supported the removal of more than three tons of plastic from Nigerian coastal and peri-urban waterways through partner-led interventions. Each in-game victory unlocks funding for verified cleanup, recycling, and coastal restoration activities carried out by trusted local partners, including Let’s Do It Nigeria and RecyclePoints, with impacts transparently tracked through an in-game dashboard. Building on this momentum, Grace aims to activate more than 3,000 youth and fund the removal of at least five additional tons of plastic through weekly in-game “Eco-Crisis” missions, demonstrating how culturally grounded storytelling, game design, and accountability can turn sustained youth participation into tangible improvements for Nigeria’s marine and coastal ecosystems.

United States | Water Stories: Voices from the UK

Through Water Stories: Voices from the UK, Joey aims to deepen climate and water literacy by translating complex scientific realities into compelling, human-centered stories that resonate across communities and disciplines. By producing a five-part documentary series, he hopes to elevate marginalized and often-overlooked voices—including coastal residents, rural communities, faith leaders, and youth activists—whose lives are shaped by rising seas, pollution, water inequality, and hidden groundwater systems. Joey’s goal is to reach at least 10,000 viewers through digital platforms, while opening pathways for broader dissemination through outlets such as BBC and PBS, sparking dialogue that connects science, justice, and lived experience. Ultimately, he seeks to inspire empathy, reflection, and informed action by showing how water connects ecological systems and social realities across the UK, while also strengthening his own capacity as a science communicator and documentarian committed to shaping a more equitable and resilient water future.

Colombia | Guardians of the Sierra, Voices of the Water

Through Guardians of the Sierra, Voices of the Water, Laura aims to empower young people in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia, to become storytellers and long-term guardians of their rivers and sacred water systems. Her goal is to train 106 youth ages 10–14 from six rural watersheds in StopMotion animation, scriptwriting, and sound design, enabling them to create six animated short films that blend ancestral knowledge, magical realism, and local perspectives on water protection. By sharing these films through school screenings, the Volver a la Tierra Tour, and a culminating community festival, Laura hopes to reach more than 1,200 community members and strengthen awareness of the “Black Line” (Seshiza) as an ancestral ecological map that connects rivers, culture, and coastal ecosystems. Ultimately, she seeks to build cultural pride, creative capacity, and environmental stewardship among Indigenous, Afro-descendant, campesino, and rural youth—ensuring that protecting water is understood not only as an environmental responsibility, but as a living cultural practice passed between generations.

Peru | T’IKARY

Through T’IKARY, which means “to bloom” in Quechua, Milagros aims to protect the biodiversity of Lake Titicaca while empowering Indigenous youth and communities to reclaim ancestral knowledge through creativity and circular solutions. Building on a successful pilot that engaged over 700 students and teachers through art and storytelling, she hopes to expand the project to at least 25 schools around the lake by launching a large-scale “Reciclatón” campaign that encourages plastic bottle collection and recycling. The collected bottles will be cleaned, processed, and transformed into durable weaving material, which artisan women will use to handcraft eco-friendly bags stamped with biodiversity designs created by students. Milagros’s goal is to produce at least 5,000 bags that raise awareness of Titicaca’s biodiversity while reducing plastic pollution entering the lake. By selling these bags at community fairs and online, she aims to fund future student-led environmental projects, generate income for local women, and establish a self-sustaining circular economy rooted in education, conservation, and cultural pride.

Pakistan | Architects of Belonging: Tides of a Vanishing Karachi

Through Architects of Belonging: Tides of a Vanishing Karachi, Ali aims to help communities in Karachi understand how human choices have reshaped the city’s relationship with its coastline, waterways, and the Arabian Sea. By creating an interactive exhibition that combines illustrated timelines, visual art, poetry, and oral histories from fishermen, environmentalists, and local stakeholders, he hopes to reframe climate change as a lived, local issue rather than a distant abstraction. His goal is to directly engage at least 500 people—students, educators, and community members—while reaching broader audiences through digital documentation and social media, raising awareness of how urbanization, poor waste management, and mangrove loss continue to degrade marine ecosystems. Ultimately, Ali seeks to amplify voices often excluded from public discourse and inspire more sustainable thinking by reconnecting Karachi’s residents with the cultural, historical, and ecological ties between land and sea, encouraging a deeper sense of responsibility for protecting Pakistan’s coastal and marine environments.

United States | Desert Bloom: Environmental Arts Camp

Through Desert Bloom: Environmental Arts Camp, Rishi aims to empower low-income middle and high school students in rural Arizona to understand, creatively express, and respond to the challenges of extreme heat, drought, and water scarcity shaping their daily lives. By hosting a week-long summer camp that combines hands-on art workshops—such as murals, sculpture, photography, and storytelling—with interactive lessons on climate change and water conservation, he hopes to give students both the knowledge and creative tools to articulate their experiences and solutions. Rishi’s goal is to directly engage 30 students and reach more than 300 community members through a public showcase and traveling gallery of youth-created artwork, sparking dialogue around climate resilience in communities often excluded from environmental conversations. Ultimately, he hopes the project will elevate rural youth voices, foster ongoing civic engagement, and inspire long-term participation in climate-focused activities beyond the camp itself. 

Philippines | CurrentShift Commservation Workshop

Through CurrentShift Commservation, Rodmar aims to help coastal youth in Guimaras, Philippines, transform climate anxiety and experiences with marine litter into creative agency and ocean stewardship. By hosting a series of two-day workshops across three barangays, he hopes to directly engage 40 young people ages 13–21 in visual art and creative writing activities that explore marine litter, science communication, and emotional responses to climate change. His goal is to guide participants in producing at least 20 artworks and illustrated stories that reframe waste and environmental degradation as narratives of resilience rather than despair, while also strengthening ecological knowledge and confidence. Through a public exhibit and a digital booklet, Rodmar aims to reach more than 500 community members—amplifying youth voices, raising awareness of threats to the Guimaras Strait, and fostering a generation of young people who see themselves as capable advocates and stewards shaping their community’s sustainable future. 

South Africa | Custodians of the Blue

Through Custodians of the Blue, Tshepiso aims to empower young people along South Africa’s Hennops River to become active protectors of their waterways and the climate through art, recycling, and storytelling. Working with three pilot schools, each school will select student and teacher custodians who lead their peers in collecting waste and transforming it into creative artworks that reveal how litter harms rivers, oceans, and the climate. Tshepiso’s goal is to directly engage at least 300 students and teachers in establishing school-based recycling systems and climate education, while fostering youth leadership from within each school. Each school will host a public showcase and vote for their favourite pieces, with top artworks advancing to an inter-school competition, before being featured in a digital anthology and social media campaign that he hopes will reach more than 5,000 people. Ultimately, Tshepiso seeks to cultivate a lasting sense of ownership and responsibility among young people—encouraging them to see themselves as custodians of their environment and inspiring continued protection of rivers and the blue planet.

Nigeria | The Hyacinth Yarn Project

Through The Hyacinth Yarn Project, Victoria aims to restore the ecological health of Lagos waterways while creating sustainable livelihoods for the Ebutte-Ipakodo community by transforming invasive water hyacinth into biodegradable yarn. Her goal is to manually remove large quantities of this destructive plant—whose dense mats block sunlight, deplete oxygen, and collapse aquatic biodiversity—so that waterways can recover and transportation and fishing livelihoods can resume. By engaging local residents in harvesting, drying, and reinforcing the hyacinth fibers with cotton and fabric, Victoria hopes to train at least 20 participants in creative and entrepreneurial skills and educate more than 200 community members about the environmental impacts of invasive species. The resulting yarn will be used to produce woven clothing, accessories, and household items showcased through exhibitions and a fashion runway, demonstrating how environmental restoration and creative enterprise can work together. Ultimately, she aims to establish a self-sustaining, community-owned model that protects the Lagos Lagoon and Atlantic-connected waterways while fostering economic resilience and a greener future.