Young Volunteer of the Coral Preservation Project:

An Interview about her findings regading this new expedition

I interwewed Soledad Valls, presently living in Costa Rica and a student of journalism who has become a collaborator of the Centro Comunitario de Buceo Ambassadors fo the Sea.

She came to volunteer at the moment in 2020 when its coral community project is gaining ground after four years of training its youth to scuba dive with a purpose, one such purpose being the preservation of the coral reefs in Costa Rica´ s Caribbean coast.

Her first insights and what she has first writen about it tell the story in the diverse voices of three of its participants.

                                                        The intervew

```

How did you hear about the Ambassadors of the Sea in the Caribbean?

I met you, an activist, journalist, born buceadora, explorer, generous and an example for the youth. As of the founders and supporters of the initiative in Costa Rica´s Caribbean you welcomed me as a young journalist to help write about it. Hmmm, I thought, there is room in this project for young people who want to make a difference.

What has called your attention about Ambassadors of the Sea? The reassignation of youth’s role in the change. The delegation of the change responsibility/ protagonism of change to the youth.

Who have you interviewed so far?

Gloriana, Esteban and Felix. The youngest, Esteban, now 22, was a co- founder of the initiative when he was 16 and I have been very impressed with his commitment to the commons and the ancestral knowledge he brings to the process of coral preservation. Gloriana is mother of three boys, all divers except the smallest who is too young at one and a half years of age but one of his first words has been "agua" already. She walks her talk! And Felix is very committed to corals and finding his way to learn to do it as a community endeavor being a new comer from another context.

1. What have each of them accomplished in the Centro / what are their goals, their mission in the center. What does each of them dreams to accomplish by being part of the Centro.

Esteban wants to be a Dive Master but also become an outboard motor and diving equipment mechanic "to help clean the ocean with good maintenance" as he insists. He is an amazing mixture of Afro, indigenous and caucasian blends thast makes him an old soul with plenty of ancestral wisdom.

The Centro gives Felix the chance of fulfilling his desire -even in small doses- every day: to participate in meaningful projects that give his life on earth a purpose. That fulfill his desire of being a helpful tool for the environment, for this burning imminent change that is in front of us, yelling desperately/ in despair to us to become aware of it now, before it is too late.

Gloriana- her dream is to work with youth to help achieve deeper awareness in the brains and souls of our future generations to adopt new productive and friendly habits “that will will make the difference”. A multitasker who is a diver, an enterpreneur prouducer of a healthy biotic gingerale , the president of the Centro and is rasing three kids with her compañero, also a diver and part of the Centro.

What is the most significant message from each of them?

• G: Ask yourself what’ s your ideal world, what would be your role in it, and how can you achieve that? What could be your first step towards it?

• F: Ask yourself what you want, what’ s your priority,

• E: Get in touch with your roots, be productive, be active, feel useful, communicate your common wants and walk towards them.

What is the biggest lesson you have learned from what they do?

Although the global protest for climate change is vital/key/ essential/ indispensable/needed/important, I have learned that we have to seek direct and straight connections with nature. embrace a direct link between us and it. Making real, human connections. Humanize our relation with the cause. Because if we don’t, it remains an ideal/utopic/distant cause. But if we gain close contact with it, it starts getting closer and we get a more realistic idea of what the world can be with our help; we get a real insight of what is the significance of our role in the big picture, because every big change starts with a small step.

Sol´s first production in English https://escribana.org/ambassadors-of-the-sea-youth-committed-to-change/