Global Gallery

Mariana González

I am a multi-task, creative and a full-time dreamer. I am a volunteer in every level that I know: international better known as pixaneek, in Mexico as @youthxpower and around my house as @parquerf... read more I am a multi-task, creative and a full-time dreamer. I am a volunteer in every level that I know: international better known as pixaneek, in Mexico as @youthxpower and around my house as @parquerf My fav wisdom phrase is “Let it be”and I have 2 goals in my to do list:1st is to save the world (I am still working on that)and 2nd to work with friends(done!). Although my major was in Foreign Affairs, my passion takes form while I was studying the Master on Economics, to work with holistic projects to get development through sustainability. So since I was invited to be project coordinator in GYAN (Global Youth Action Network, an initiative of Taking It Global) I have been in charge of sustainable development local projects. The 1st financed by the World Bank civil society fund 2008. Here I did the fund raise to do a water system in a rural school beneficiating more than 500 children. I work on capacity building with the volunteers and school authorities and I was in charge of the advocacy and administrative work. Then we applied for the UNHABITAT Opportunities Fund 2009 and we won again. With this fund, we can work more than an entire year with three different communities building eco techniques like water systems to get drinkable water, eco ovens and organic harvest of mushrooms. For me to be involve with GYAN has been a catalyst in my network experience and opportunities as when GYAN Mexico was invited by the regional Office of the ECLAC in Santiago de Chile to write the Latin American strategy on climate change in the way to COP16. My goal here was to include youth in the negotiation and I did it. Thanks to this opportunity I have improved my skills and expertise on capacity building. To fight for me is not to ask for special places or some chairs like a gift in conferences, is about giving tools and transference of knowledge to multiply the opportunities and make it real for all. We have to strength our common barriers as youth, we have to assume ourselves like young personas and we must defend our voice, and our future.