Stop Plastic!
“When I was five years old my parents lived in India for one year in Varanasi, which is a very intense place. My memories as a child start from India. I don’t remember my life before, so it really had an impact on me. I saw my first aquatic animal when I was there – the Gangetic Dolphin. I still remember this very well. It was in the Ganges River, which is a very sacred place. It’s where they burn dead bodies, and a lot of things happen in this river, so it has a very mystical feeling about it. I was with my mum because she was volunteering at an orphanage for disabled children and she was taking care of one girl. Her name was Sanguita and she had autism. She was a little older than me, maybe seven. Mum would walk by the river with us at the end of the day. Every time we would see not one but two dolphins, jumping. We could see them clearly for about 15 minutes, and it was a sunset at the same time, so it was really very nice. I still remember those days as if it was yesterday. My mum has since told me that for the first time in her life, Sanguita was smiling. I don’t know if it was because of the dolphins or because she was with us, but I remember Sanguita smiling as well.”
“I grew up in Switzerland for the rest of my childhood but I always had this connection with India. I always thought about going back one day. This day came in 2018. I was looking for something to do with the marine environment because I was volunteering with the Swiss Cetacean Society. I had this idea of trying to find some projects to do outside Europe. I found India because I always wanted to move back and anyway there are so many coasts, there must be something to do there. Together with Terra Conscious, a marine conservation social enterprise, we decided to do something in Goa, where there is a lot of tourism and which is one of the most polluted coastal states of India. We have already done a lot of raising awareness about how to protect the marine ecosystems but we feel a lot more needs to be done. This year we want to go to a lot of schools, hotels and restaurants to help them get rid of plastic. And explain why we all need to protect the marine ecosystems in Goa and in the world in general.”
“I haven’t been back to Varanasi yet. I can’t really explain why. I think I am a little bit scared. I doubt I will see the river dolphins again. They have become an endangered species. And I am afraid to see how much the river has changed, with more pollution and plastics floating in it. I am not very satisfied about how we are treating nature. I always think about how we can improve the connection that humans have with wildlife. I feel that this connection has been broken or lost. It would be nice to live in a world where we take more consideration to nature and try to preserve it.”