An interview with Gabriela Eslava Bejarano, one of our Green Web Fellows 2023.
Katrin: Gabriela, how has your fellowship experience been so far?
Gabriela: The fellowship experience has been great so far. I’ve learned so much and it has opened my eyes to a lot of new subjects. As environmental activists, we tend to work on visible infrastructures. Yet, it is also necessary to look at digital infrastructures. Often, the digital world is assumed to be imaginary, but it actually has a real impact on climate. At the same time, the digital world can also be part of the solution. So for me, this has opened a whole new area of interest.
It’s also nice to have our weekly calls, because the other fellows have different experiences and approaches. I can learn a lot from them. The fellows made me realise that I also want to open my mind, and that I want to provide access to digital rights and climate justice topics to much more communities; particularly in Latin America.
Katrin: You’ve just had your mid-point presentations. Looking back, were there certain learnings for you throughout the process?
Gabriela: Yes, definitely that I need to narrow the scope of my project to make it more valuable [laughs]. I’ve realised that solving a specific problem for a specific region in Latin America makes much more sense than working on an overall theme. I’ve also gotten more talking points, for example that digital is not always the best solution.
Katrin: If you would recommend this fellowship to someone, who would you recommend it to?
Gabriela: I would definitely recommend this fellowship to young people from Latin America. I also think that there are a lot of indigenous communities that would both benefit from and contribute to the fellowship experience. Once the applications open for the next cohort, I will definitely make sure to send it to a lot of people from my communities.
Katrin: Thank you so much, Gabriela.
