On monday the 16th of february, after a nice week-end of carnival in Barranquilla, I had a meeting with Xiomy Acevedo at Plaza de la Paz. When we saw each others, our faces looked familiar... Guess what ? We had spent the saturday evening together, but the music was so loud, it was not worth the trouble introducing each others :)
Xiomy, alias Super Xiomy (no, I just made this up !) is a fantastic woman. She founded Barranquilla Sostenible (+20) over two years ago when studying at the Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla. Highly involved in politics and environmental issues at that time, she wanted to engage young Colombians to work with her on the principal problematics discussed at Rio+20 : sustainable development, green economy and environmental governance. She obtained the support of the university to invite professionals from the public sector and the United Nations to talk in front of an audience of 100 young people. At this event, they elaborated a declaration on sustainable development for Barranquilla, and from there Barranquilla+20 was born. The 20 commitments that composed the declaration are reviewed each year during annual events where the young people guided by Xiomy and her teammates chose the programs they want to work in during the year.
They have been working for two years on amazing projects around Barranquilla, such as MallorquinVIVE - Escuela del Agua, an innovative program in the Atlantic Department. El Orinoco se Adapta, is another more recent project through which Xiomy and his fellows want to raise awareness about environmental issues and undergoing programs in a remote region of Colombia : Orinoquia.
Xiomy is a Colombian rare jewel for the United Nations. Over the past two years, she has been invited to various international environmental conferences ; she will be in Japan in March for the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction and will attend the COP 21 in Paris at the end of the year !
Xiomy, alias Super Xiomy (no, I just made this up !) is a fantastic woman. She founded Barranquilla Sostenible (+20) over two years ago when studying at the Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla. Highly involved in politics and environmental issues at that time, she wanted to engage young Colombians to work with her on the principal problematics discussed at Rio+20 : sustainable development, green economy and environmental governance. She obtained the support of the university to invite professionals from the public sector and the United Nations to talk in front of an audience of 100 young people. At this event, they elaborated a declaration on sustainable development for Barranquilla, and from there Barranquilla+20 was born. The 20 commitments that composed the declaration are reviewed each year during annual events where the young people guided by Xiomy and her teammates chose the programs they want to work in during the year.
They have been working for two years on amazing projects around Barranquilla, such as MallorquinVIVE - Escuela del Agua, an innovative program in the Atlantic Department. El Orinoco se Adapta, is another more recent project through which Xiomy and his fellows want to raise awareness about environmental issues and undergoing programs in a remote region of Colombia : Orinoquia.
Xiomy is a Colombian rare jewel for the United Nations. Over the past two years, she has been invited to various international environmental conferences ; she will be in Japan in March for the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction and will attend the COP 21 in Paris at the end of the year !