Deltares supported the Water Youth Network (WYN, an organisation which aims to encourage quality youth participation in the water sector) by allowing Merel van de Most to complete WYN related work as part of her internship at Deltares. Her help was much needed as the young organisation is growing fast, and ambitions are high. At the moment, the focus is on connecting more young organisations worldwide. Amongst other tasks, Merel helped to design the joint action plan based on the outcomes of the successful Young Water Leadership Summit, organised to prepare young people for the Singapore International Water Week 2014, and helped to identify youth water organisations. The WYN is very grateful for this cooperation and looks forward to continued support from Deltares in the future.
If you have ideas to support the WYN, either by joining the core group, by linking your organisation, or by donations/links to possible funds, please do not hesitate to contact us! 🙂
Merel’s internship at the WYN, written by Merel van der Most
Last summer, I did an internship for the Water Youth Network. For me, this was a very interesting experience in which I got to know some of the work and people of the WYN. I have done work and volunteering for different youth organizations before, but never for one with such an international orientation. In the few weeks of my internship, I mainly worked on two projects.
For the first one, I created a database listing different youth organizations working on water issues. Through this project, I realized how many youngsters are actually active in this sector. The work of the WYN lies in binding these organizations and creating a network for them to share their ideas and practices. While listing these organizations, I realized the importance of creating this network: A lot of these young people do amazing work, but by binding them together, they could accomplish even more and really create a voice of the youth on water.
The other task I did was the creation a database with the aim of presenting actions for youth organizations. This is a way for groups to state and share their practices. This aims to facilitate communication between different organizations and ensure that people can get the most out of, for example, conferences or projects. Right now, the action plan of the Singapore International Water Week is processed in the database, but more will come. Reading the outcomes of the sessions from the SIWW was interesting, but I enjoyed thinking about how to present these even more.
Altogether, I have had a great time during my internship. It is nice to work with youth who are also passionate about these issues and it is great to see how youngsters from all over the world manage to create an important international network. Although the international orientation might be an obstacle for communication, social media and skype create an environment where this is possible. I have decided that I would really like to stay active in the WYN and keep on working on the projects I already started with.