FROM August 14 to 21, We Are The Oceans (WATO), will be running an education workshop for underprivileged school children in St. Lucia.
The project, being held in partnership with the St. Lucian government and Ministry of Tourism, will spotlight the threats facing the oceans and surrounding communities while teaching young people technical film/documentary-making skills and enabling them to share their personal relationship with the ocean.
Frustrated by a lack of awareness and action on the global issue of oceanic degradation, particularly among her generation, 23-year-old ocean activist, Daisy Kendrick, founded WATO with the support of the UN.
WATO is using gaming, music, fashion and technology collaborations to engage young people and gain their support in driving innovative, forward-thinking ocean conservation projects.
Kendrick will be in St. Lucia and will be willing to discuss the following:
• WATO’s recently released game, Island Nation Defence, which raises awareness of the challenges facing Small Island Developing States (SIDS)
• The growing threats facing SIDS and climate refugees around the world
• Other initiatives launched by WATO, including:
◦ The launch of a new ‘We Are The Oceans’ song, performed by Joss Stone, a global social influencer. A campaign will allow musicians to download and record their own versions, inspiring a digital wave of awareness through music
◦ WATO’s partnership with the Vans Warped Tour – and a campaign to ‘riff sustainably’ – largest music festival in America – which saw 6,000 signatures gathered and 23 bands record the WATO song
◦ The #LastStraw campaign to end the unnecessary culture of using straws – 500 million straws are used and discarded every day in the U.S. alone.
ABOUT WATO:
Backed by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), WATO has generated support from industry leaders and international brands, including supermodel and philanthropist Natalia Vodianova, gaming giant Rovio, creator of Angry Birds, fashion house H&M and global sports brand Vans.
WATO has worked with communities most heavily affected by oceanic degradation, many of which are found among the world’s Small Island Developing States. Examples of this are the fishermen and women in Anse du Clerc, Haiti. This March, WATO distributed over a hundred solar powered freezers to help merchants, entirely dependent on fish, whose livelihoods were recently devastated by Hurricane Matthew.
WATO teamed up with global game developer and distributor, Rovio, to incorporate ocean messaging into one of the most downloaded game franchises in history – Angry Birds. The first in a series of games from WATO, ‘The BIG Catch’ launched in April and saw players encounter a fun game mechanic while being educated and presented with clear calls to action about the oceans. The second game, focused around Small Island Developing States launched in June. Each game has seen over 3 million players so far.
WATO is partnering with the largest U.S. music festival this summer — the Vans Warped Tour – bringing awareness of ocean sustainability to the event, which is travelling across 41 states with over 100 bands and an attendance of over 500,000 people.