Youth4Water at Amnesty International's Human Water Rights: Let's Make It Our Business

By: Christine Moon

February 28, 2009

Youth4Water had a busy day today at the Human Water Rights event hosted by Amnesty International Canada and co-presented by the Water and Sanitation Rotarian Action Group (WASRAG), O.I.S.E., and Students Against Climate Change. The event was held from 9:30-4:00 at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and was a huge success. In the morning, we had the priviledge of hearing not only Dr. Ron Denham of WASRAG, but also from the queen of water activism: Maude Barlowe, Chair of the Council of Canadians, and the UN Senior Advisor on Water. Youth4Water was very excited to meet Ms. Barlowe and even take our picture with her! Both Dr. Denham and Ms. Barlowe spoke of issues of water in terms of businesses, access, sanitation, technology, women, and education. Though they shed some light on the issues at hand, giving us a bleak picture indeed, their messages were those of hope - we can make a difference, we can create change, and we will.

In the afternoon, Youth4Water had the priviledge of holding a workshop for those attending. We broke out into smaller groups and thought about some scenarios, putting ourselves directly in the shoes of those affected by the growing issues of water in the world - issues including gender roles and discrimination, the Alberta tar sands, our Native American communities, and bottled water. We ended by presenting our scenarios and our solutions, and got some good dialogue going. All in all, today was a great day, a great way to end February and a fantastic jumping-off point into March.

Some footage and pictures of Youth4Water and Maude Barlowe today will be posted soon!
March for Youth4Water is very busy month. We are working hard on our mural project, an art project showing some of the issues of water locally, nationally, and internationally. We are pleased to announce that this mural, not only a piece to start discussion on issues of water, will be displayed in the Royal Ontario Museum later this year.

We are also launching our t-shirt awareness campaign - where YOU can design a t-shirt focusing on an issue of water in your community or your world, for a chance to win a cool prize, and your design on the t-shirt!

Youth4Water will also be hosting and attending a forum for youth March 21, 2009 - the day before World Water Day - in partership with the CTC Source Protection Committe (TRCA), so if you're interested, keep checking out the blog or email us at youthforwater@gmail.com!

March is also the time Youth4Water gets to go to Ottawa! We'll be visiting Parliament and speaking with some of our nation's leaders. We will also be running workshops with youth in middle school in Ottawa schools!

To learn more about Youth4Water and our upcoming events, keep checking the blog, or write to us at youthforwater@gmail.com! Our website is currently in development, but will be up shortly at http://www.unac.org/

See you soon!
Christine Moon