In a online meeting held with eight youth members and the Founder, Board and key Operational Team members of marine conservation organization Azraq, there was a strong call to protect the local coral reefs for future generations.
The meeting, organised by Youth Ambassador Lead, Sagarika Sriram, was held after school, where the youth raised the concerns of oil spills, the fishing industry and the loss of marine life on the marine environment and pled with the conservation group to focus on protecting coral reefs.
Sagarika stated that the meeting was organized so that the youth members could steer the conservation group towards marine issues, where the youth felt more needed to be done.
"We are the next generation and are facing major environmental issues as a result of the mistakes of previous generations before us," Sagarika said.
"The health of the oceans around the globe are in a very precarious situation, with major issues of climate change, overfishing and a reliance on fossil fuels impacting the marine environment."
Azraq’s Founder, Natalie Banks who attended the meeting, welcomed the views of the youth members, and spent an hour fleshing out their concerns and what they felt Azraq could do, and how the organization could be better.
"The reason Azraq has a Youth Ambassador program is because our Board firmly believes that the decisions we make today, impact future generations, so we welcome our youth members at the decision-making table," Ms Banks said.
"I personally, along with the Board and Azraq’s Operations Team welcome the guidance from the youth and will take their concerns to a much larger internal meeting, which will determine the ability for Azraq to deliver on the desired outcomes raised by our youth members."
Sagarika works closely with Azraq, attending operational meetings and weekly phone calls with Ms Banks, where she outlines the hopes, dreams and fears of the future generation.
The internal meeting set to discuss these issues took place on Friday, 4 September and there was a unanimous vote from all involved in Azraq that a campaign focussed on coral reef protecting will be the next initiative that the marine conservation organisation will focus on.
Find out more about Azraq’s Youth Ambassador program here: https://azraqme.org/youth-ambassadors