YOUTH AGENDA ON WATER
Through WESC’s Water Awareness and Education Program (funded by UNDP-GEF, IDRC, and American Embassy), we educated youth on local and global water issues, promoting dialogue between Egyptian Ministry officials and youth, empowering youth to appeal to the Ministry for national policy changes, and supporting youth appeals to corporations for assistance in solving Egypt’s water quality issues. Youth can be very powerful “agents of change” via advocacy and democracy by proposing and campaigning practical solutions to water problems. Students from 12 different governorates were taken on a water awareness and education journey, starting with a period of research and discovery of the water related problems in their eco-zones. Subsequently the students all met together in a workshop to learn about how to identify water problems and find solutions for their given locations. Students then returned to their localities and tried to implement the solutions that they come up with, some included awareness campaigns others building new systems for drinking water or sewage.
World Water Forum, Mexico
WESC encourages student participation in international events and advocates students as “agents of change”. WESC secured funds for 10 water project students (accompanied by WESC staff) to participate in the Local Actions for Global Changes session of the World Water Forum, Mexico City, 2006. WESC students, along with the Minister of Water Resources and his staff, presented child-proposed Egyptian national policy changes during the Arab Day session. Students also presented their Water Program, participated in the Children’s Forum, and displayed an interpretive booth where they intelligently and thoroughly discussed their water project, answered questions, and conversed with other professionals and interested people around the world about the water situation in Egypt.