Ocean Futures: Youth Ocean Literacy Program

A collective of university students and young activists from coastal communities want to bring ocean conservation back to the people it affects most. Not through data dashboards or carbon credits, but through direct, community-rooted education. The $180 covers printing, workshop materials, and travel to three coastal villages. The zine series will be written and illustrated by youth from the communities themselves, in Bahasa Malaysia, covering topics like reef ecology, fishing practices, and the history of how conservation decisions have been made without them. Workshops will be held in community spaces, not schools, so that parents and elders can join. No dataset will be produced. No deliverable that fits neatly into a grant report. The proposal is built on the belief that changing how people think about the ocean is longer-lasting than any monitoring device. The question it is really asking: does conservation always have to be measurable to count?

━━━ Budget Request ━━━ • Hosting workshops — $300 ━━━ Total: $300 ━━━