Help Save the Mediterranean - WIKI's Centennial Multi-Media Expedition

WIKI’S CENTENNIAL EXPEDITION

WIKI, a classic sailing yacht built in 1920, is celebrating her ‘Mediterranean Century’ with a three-year, multi-media exploration of the cultural, natural, and historical riches of the Med. The expedition will take stock of the crises and challenges facing the Greater Mediterranean. And guided by WIKI’s five-point action plan, we will showcase and support effective solutions which can be replicated worldwide. In the course of this journey, we will seek to inform, inspire and motivate individuals, corporations and governments to act.

THE PROJECT

WIKI’s Five-Point Action Plan:

Reduce carbon emissions and adapt to climate change

Stop pollution, especially plastics

Limit damaging fishing, shipping and cruising practices

Reverse the loss of biodiversity

Support circular economies, sustainable tourism and protection of cultural heritage.

The time has come to bear witness and harness the influence of a powerful global audience to preserve and restore not only the Greater Mediterranean but all the planet’s oceans for the benefit of current and future generations. Our initiative will explore the impact of the past 100 years (the lifespan of our flagship WIKI) of human activity on the Mediterranean and promote WIKI’s five-point action plan.

Our focus is on innovative content creation with local, regional and worldwide distribution; education and the engagement of young people; the direct involvement of citizens,

scientists, entrepreneurs, policymakers and other crucial actors.

All content will be made available free-ofcharge on our aggregator web platform in the public interest as we partner with media, institutions and communities.

This unique film, print and social media collective will report the Great Mediterranean, including the Black and Red Seas.

While identifying the critical challenges facing the Greater Mediterranean, we will celebrate its rich cultural heritage, environmental diversity and relative strengths; including imaginative entrepreneurial and grass-roots approaches for providing solutions to the current crises facing the Med and all five of the world’s oceans.

Our objective is to inform as well as entertain in order to provoke reactions and galvanize public opinion.

English will serve as our operational language but with appropriate support we will provide content in French, Italian, Spanish, Arabic and German.

This is the central mission of HelpSaveTheMed.

Our three-year expedition will probe and respond to the following questions:

What was this particular corner of the Mediterranean like 100 years ago? ?

What do these same ports and anchorages look like today? What has changed?

How can we enhance, preserve, and protect this unique cultural and environmental legacy for future generations?

What will the Med look like 100 years from now?

What efforts can be replicated or inspire similar solutions elsewhere on the planet and it’s five oceans?

WIKI : over a century of history

©Patricia Lascabannes Photography

THE EXPEDITION

Producing Compelling Stories about the Med

WIKI - which means ‘swift’ in Hawaiian - together with her support vessels and shore crew, will provide a focal point, workplace, and means of travel to enable HelpSaveTheMed’s collaborators, young and old, to produce a continuous flow of short-form film, video, print, photography and cartooning, including graphic novels, for distribution on diverse media platforms.

These will serve as ‘stimulators’ for public expert debate and to instigate pragmatic solutions.

By collaborating editorially with scientists, mariners, academics, entrepreneurs, artists and others, we will promote existing initiatives and ensure that they are properly understood by global audiences.

STORY IDEAS… We welcome your suggestions.

The Bay of Villefranche: The Mediterranean’s deepest harbour near Monaco’s Oceanographic Institute. We will explore flora and fauna, but also cultural influences, including a boatyard that specializes in renovating and restoring classic wooden boats.

Tour du Valat research institute, Camargue, France: Restoring Mediterranean wetlands.

Spain’s Cadaques and the Salvador Dali museum: Off the beaten track with a great culinary scene and vernacular architecture next to Cap Creux, a reclaimed National Park

Alain Gachat, the ‘Water Wizard’: How to deal with water shortages through the discovery of replenishable aquifers in the Greater Mediterranean region.

The Cinque Terre National Park: Profile featuring its five pastel-painted fishing villages, the first in a series on the Med’s UNESCO World Heritage sites; over 30 of which are endangered.

The Valletta Design Cluster: An imaginative community space for cultural and creative practice situated in the renovated Old Abattoir (Il-Biċċerija l-Antika).

PLEASE JOIN US

Our ‘expedition’ will effectively circumnavigate the Mediterranean Basin in a far-flung effort to showcase the richness of the Med as well as trigger behavioural change both on the ground and at sea. We will profile cutting-edge approaches for developing sustainable solutions while enabling communities to participate in the process.

STORY IDEAS… Join our multi-media action initiative.

Leoluca Orlando, Mayor of Palermo, Sicily: A prominent anti-mafia advocate, Orlando is integrating migrants and refugees as a means of reinvigorating this Italian island’s economy.

The ViaRhôna: A 815 km bike trip through 2000 years of history and cultural heritage along the Rhone River, one of the Med’s main fresh water sources, from the Alps to the sea.

The Maghreb’s Atlas Mountains: Separating the Mediterranean and Atlantic from the Sahara Desert, we explore coastal agriculture and tourism to wildlife and ancient cultures.

The Transnational Red Sea Centre: How Switzerland’s EPFL is engaging with eight Mediterranean countries to help save the world’s coral reefs in the face of global warming.

Beirut: Emerging from decades of civil war. The Paris of the Middle East, first in a series of compelling stories ranging from economic problems to cultural heritage St. Tropez: How has it changed? Once a sleepy fishing village and site of the WWII Allied landings, it is now a rendezvous for the jet set and a gathering place for world-class yacht races, and known for its viniculture, beach restaurants and cultural events.

In the course of the expedition we will use ports such as Valetta, Barcelona, Nice, Monaco and Marseille as regional hubs for WIKI and her fleet of accompanying vessels. This will enable us to imaginatively showcase initiatives and produce stories from those countries that border the Mediterranean.

We are also proposing reports from the Black Sea, such as the importance of maintaining Odesa’s shipping outlets to feed the world.

Equally crucial, with Sharm El Sheikh as the host for COP27 in November 2022, we will emphasise and disseminate coverage of climate challenges and solutions, such as the potential of temperature resistant Red Sea corals to improve the resilience of reefs across the Med, Atlantic, Indian Ocean and Pacific.

STORY IDEAS… With your support, we can inform not just locally, but worldwide.

Italy’s Imperial Ostia: Accompanied by archaeologists, we will travel back in time with the Romans, and attend a concert in the original amphitheatre.

The Egadi Islands: Off Sicily’s western coast with the collapse of the tuna industry, the islanders have reinvented themselves.

Barcelona: City of Gaudi and superyacht haven: How is this key Mediterranean port embracing responsible tourism and maritime development?

Fighting Forest Fires: A cockpit view of Canadair crews at work – part of a series on Mediterranean communities from Algeria to Greece saving forests through imaginative environmental and urban approaches.

From Genoa to Marseille – The shipping redesign: How ship builders, merchant transport and oil companies are adapting to the challenges of climate change, environmental pollution and more efficient modes of energy use.

HOW WE PLAN TO OPERATE

Our journalists, producers, cartoonists, filmmakers, photographers as well as social media innovators and partners will explore the Mediterranean region. We will visit its lands and waters as well as discovering its cultures and peoples from its historic ports and coves to its archaeological sites, wetlands, nature reserves and industrial centres.

We will carefully curate our destinations and reports to offer an intimate view and perspective of all 22 nations that border the Med. One of our initiatives will be the selection of Young Media Fellows – one from each country – to produce regular reporting blogs. We are working hard on securing the backing of concerned governments, corporate sponsors, yacht captains and owners, media and individual patrons eager to participate in this exceptional opportunity to give back and save the Med from an uncertain future.

A Highly Qualified Team

Award-winning journalist and author Ed Girardet, and three-time Emmy awardwinning filmmaker Tom Woods will lead this endeavor. Supported by a global network of experienced editors, reporters, producers, thematic experts, and advisers, they will mentor a core team of young and dynamic, multicultural collaborators from Europe, the Middle East, Northern Africa and elsewhere, including the Global South. Together, the team will produce, coordinate and distribute content. Ed and Tom have produced print and television documentary reports on war, the environment, humanitarian crises, development and other critical issues in locations ranging from Somalia, Kenya and Zambia to Afghanistan, Haiti, Thailand, and Liberia. Media clients include The BBC, CNN, National Geographic, the Monitor, PBS, France Télévisions, ITV and NBC, as well as organizations such as: UNICEF, MSF, WWF, UNEP, ICRC, and the Aga Khan Foundation.

A key focus: Working with youth

Our emphasis on hands-on educational and school initiatives will enable us to involve 1425 year-olds, particularly young filmmakers and aspiring writers from the world over (with scholarships for Global South participants) to help improve their communication skills. These workshops have already been successfully run on a worldwide basis by Global Insights, Ed Girardet’s current affairs magazine based in Geneva.

HelpSaveTheMed plans to hold these regular seminars (3-7 days) enabling young people to learn about the issues that matter but also to produce their own written, audiovisual, cartoon or photographic stories based on in situ reporting with the help of engaged media professionals. The best of these will be published.

Collaborating with those striving to preserve the Mediterranean

From Valetta to Marseille, Alexandria to Barcelona, and Piraeus to Beirut, HelpSaveTheMed represents an unusual opportunity to show how the Greater Mediterranean continues to impact humanity as a whole, as it has for millennia. But for this we need your involvement, ideas, and support.

Funding and support

We are seeking short and long-term financial backing, as well as in-kind support from individuals and corporations, governments and foundations and volunteers. We look forward to welcoming you on board as donors, advisors and co-adventurers.

Please join us in this extraordinary adventure with all its inherent challenges to bring about the change that is needed.

STORY IDEAS… A platform for change.

Why is the Mediterranean so important for Africa, the Middle East and Europe? A series of economic, cultural, and environmental overviews and vignettes.

The war in Ukraine and its impact on the Greater Mediterranean. Depending on what happens, we shall be following this closely.

Alexandria - From a modest pre-war port to bustling metropolis: How has this key Egyptian port city changed since British author Lawrence Durrell first wrote about it in the late 1950s as part of his four-part novel, ‘The Alexandria Quartet’?

The ongoing refugee and migrant crisis: What are the underlying causes of the dangerous voyages undertaken by refugees and asylum seekers. How are Northern and Southern Mediterranean governments and NGOs dealing with it? How can we trigger sustainable change supported by both the private and public sector?

OUR TEAM

Tom began his career as a news and documentary cameraman and went on to become an award-winning director and producer. He founded his production company, Woods Communications Ltd. in 1988.

Tom has been awarded several national Emmys for his work as a cameraman and as a director. He went on to found one of Europe’s leading production and post-production facilities as well as a major languaging and localization firm. He provided production services for many international broadcasters producing sports, entertainment and factual programming. His clients include: The BBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, Discovery, Netflix, FOX, PBS, France Télévisions, Arte, Special Broadcast Services, ZDF & ARD...

Born in New York and educated in Canada, Tom is one of seven children and was brought up in the United States, Canada, Austria, England, France and New Zealand. He is a lifelong sailor and a long-term resident of France. Tom speaks fluent French and has a working knowledge of German and Italian. He attended the Sorbonne and the prestigious French film school l’Ecole de Vaugirard.

Tom has provided many in-depth reports for NBC and PBS with Ed Giradet, including news and documentaries in Somalia and Haiti.

Also, Tom reported on a series of shorts for the Wold Wildlife Fund. He produced “Eco Warrior” for Arte and “I Evolve” for France

Télévisions as well as “The Visioner” for ARD, The America’s Cup and The Tour de France for NBC. Tom also produced The World Cup with ESPN.

TOM WOODS

Tom Woods (right) working with young filmmakers

Expedition leader and filmmaker

ED GIRARDET

Born in New York, and brought up in the Bahamas, Canada, Germany, and the UK, Girardet is a Swiss-American editor, journalist and author. For much of his career, he has specialized in humanitarian, war and environmental reporting covering major crises in Africa, Asia, Europe and elsewhere as foreign correspondent for  The Christian Science Monitor, US News and World Report and PBS TV’s NewsHour and other media.

Someof this coverage has been together with partner producer Tom Woods. Ed has covered Afghanistan since before the Soviet invasion in December 1979. He also reported an acclaimed 94-part African Journey series for the Monitor travelling overland from Cairo to South Africa and reporting on a range of political, social, environmental, and economic issues. Girardet has worked on numerous TV current affairs and documentary programs for major European and North American broadcasters featuring the wars in Angola, Somalia, and Sri Lanka; lost tribes in Western New Guinea; children in Haiti; Médecins sans Frontières around the world as well as environmental and cultural issues in Africa and Asia. Girardet has won various awards such as the Sigma Delta Chi Best Foreign Reporting. He has a Master of Studies in Law/ Journalism (MSL/J) from Yale Law School. He is

author and/or editor of more than half a dozen books, including Somalia, Rwanda and Beyond; Populations in Danger (MSF); Killing the Cranes – A Reporter’s Journey Through Three Decades of War in Afghanistan (French edition: Il Parait Que Vous Voulez Me Tuer). He is also editor of The Essential Field Guide to Afghanistan published in four fully revised editions (1998 to 2014).

He has recently appeared in TV documentaries on Afghanistan and Islam such as ARTE, Al Jazeera and Finnish Television. Girardet, who lives with his family in a small village on the French side of the Geneva border, is editor of Global Insights magazine, (www. global-geneva. com) a print/online publication focusing on planetary concerns ranging from humanitarian responses and conflict mediation to culture, world trade and climate.

Edward Giradet (fourth from right) with student writers and editors

Mentor and editor in chief

Med Youth Media Fellows:

We are in the process of putting together a team of at least 22 young professionals – one from each country – who will report on different themes through articles, film, podcasts, photography, and cartooning highlighting diverse Mediterranean cultures, environmental challenges and solutions.

MARY FITZGERALD

Journalist and Presenter.

Mary Fitzgerald is a highly experienced writer, researcher and consultant specialising in the Mediterranean region with a particular focus on Libya. She spent several months on the ground during Libya’s in trips to North Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere in the Mediterranean. A former staff correspondent for The Irish Times for which she still writes, Mary is also a contributor to The BBC, Economist, Financial Times and Guardian. Mary is based in Marseille, France, from where she follows political, environmental and social developments in the Mediterranean region. Mary will be joined by a team of qualified presenters.

ANAIS VIVARIE

Media Intern and Presenter

Anaïs is a Franco-Eritrean actress from Marseille, fluent in English, Spanish, French and a good level in Arabic.

After completing a Bachelor of Arts at Leeds University, Anaïs followed her passion by joining a theater company working with migrants in Geneva.

Currently, she’s completing an acting degree in the Serge Martin theater school in Geneva and continues to take part in cultural projects with migrants in collaboration with the Geneva museum of Ethnography and other associations.

MAISIE WYND-SMITH

Media Intern and Presenter

Having grown up in Switzerland, Thailand, and Sri Lanka, Maisie witnessed first-hand the profound impact the climate crisis has had on our planet. From rapidly melting glaciers to accelerated coral bleaching, her travels as a youth have demonstrated the extent to which the environment is in need of help. She had the privilege of volunteering in a variety of circum stances such as coral plantation projects in Koh Tao Island in Thailand, and schools in Arusha, Tanzania.

These experiences have given Maisie a desire to learn more about geography, the environment, and people.

Maisie is a Canadian/British student in Geography and International Development Studies at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

Currently, she is pursuing a degree in Geography and International Development Studies at McGill University. She plans on applying her skills to find solutions both in the environmental field and human rights.

MARIE ESTELLE

Marie is a student in Applied Critical Archaeology at the University of Bologna, Italy, specialising in human- environment relationships around the Mediterranean Sea.

After completing a Bachelor of Arts in Culture, History and Society in 2021, Marie spent the first half of her gap year working as an intern at the World Heritage Center (UNESCO) as well as a content writer for a fair and sustainable tourism foundation and the second half traveling and volunteering at restauration works at cave churches in the Korçë region, Albania. She is passionate about the outdoors, paints and writes.

Media Intern and Presenter Media Intern and Presenter

BENJAMIN PHILLIPS

Benjamin is a recent Masters graduate from the University of Southampton in Marine Biology.

Benjamin is deeply passionate about environmental science. While writing his final dissertation on the impacts of future climate predictions on common crustaceans, he built the foundation of a small environmental science ‘popularisation’ media that he is now developing full-time with a small team of student reporters and designers. Together, they aim to raise awareness and promote interest in science through weekly social media posts and the production of a popularisation YouTube channel “The Pagurus” which HelpSaveTheMed will help support and publicize. Benjamin hikes, produces music and videos in his free time and is also a trainee diver and qualified free diver.

LAURENT BUGNARD

Media Intern and Presenter

MARK BANCHEREAU

Media Intern and Presenter

Mark is a Masters student in journalism at the City University of New York following a BA in Political Science at McGill University in Montreal.

During Mark’s last year of study, he was a writer for the McGill Journal of Political Studies, a student newspaper at his university. Mark’s interests mainly lie in environmental politics and international relations. He is an avid photographer.

Laurent is a Master’s student in Physics at the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, with a minor in Environmental Sciences looking to apply physical and mathematical tools to the field of theoretical ecology.

Laurent took a gap year to participate in two internships: a placement at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, where he participated in field work for a rewilding project called «Refauna», and a theoretical project at the ETH in Zurich. He led a research team documenting the effects of forest fragmentation on seed dispersal networks.

Other past projects include researching the surface modifications induced during micro and nanoplastics aging. His enthusiasm for adventure and discovery encouraged him to cycle to Rio by bike from Switzerland, riding thousands of kilometers through western Europe and eastern Brazil. His other interests include hiking, nature observation, classical and jazz piano and sciences in general.

LYSSIA GINGINS

Media Intern and Presenter

Lyssia is a Masters student of Journalism at the Institut Français de Presse in Paris. She hopes to work on topics related to climate

DELILAH WALTERS

Media Intern and Presenter

Delilah is in her final year student reading History of Art at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Born in the UK, Delilah has spent most of her childhood living in Delhi, India. Living abroad sparked her interest in different cultures. She has channeled this through her degree by exploring artworks and artistic practices from around the world. Delilah has taken great interest in the production of art and architecture in the early centuries of Islam in countries such as Spain and Egypt. It is an area of study that has influenced how she sees the Mediterranean: extremely diverse and multi-faceted, crucial to the history of

change and sustainability issues, and their impact on societies and political systems.

After graduating as a Bachelor of History and Political Science at the Sorbonne, Lyssia started a Masters of Political Science at the Sorbonne and took journalism classes during an exchange semester at New York University. This led to her decision to pursue a career in journalism. With deep family ties on both sides of the Mediterranean Sea – Provence and Algeria – she is very concerned about the intertwined futures of Mediterranean societies and ecosystems. This sparked her passion for sustainable travel and vernacular cuisine. She is currently travelling by train around the Balkans. In her free time, she loves to cook, learn foreign languages, write, and travel.

trade and communication, yet ecologically undervalued. Delilah aspires to become a filmmaker and has already work as a reporter for the HelpSaveTheMed initiative.

CHARLENE THIRY

Media Intern and Presenter

Charlene is a 23-year-old Swiss final year veterinary student at the University of Bern in Switzerland. She speaks German, French and English. She has published articles in Global Insights as a YouthWrites contributor.

GEORGE FLOOD-HUNT

Media Intern and Presenter

On graduating in December 2022, Charlene would like to work in a small animal hospital in a foreign country to gain solid international clinical experience. She is also focused on animal welfare and productivity in the developing world. She has worked twice in Tanzania as a volunteer once in Ruaha National Park and the second at a farm providing local veterinary care and surgery. She has written about these experiences as a YouthWrites contributor.

Given humanity’s emptying of the seas and oceans of its fauna and flora through intense overfishing and water pollution, she believes that through simple actions we can rebuild a stable biodiversity in the Mediterranean. This is why she would like to collaborate with HelpSaveTheMed. Charlene was recently featured in a SwissInfo (TV) feature on her volunteer veterinary work.

Fluent in English and French, George is a young interactive media designer based in Switzerland who wants to tell a story.

Using mixed medias to his advantage, he wants his skills as a photographer and a videographer to enrich the projects he works on. As a student, he is constantly learning new ways to create, thanks to his curiosity and imagination.

He is particularly interested in undertaking photographic and video reportage projects in the Mediterranean region, perhaps as part of the Project’s various YouthWrites and Young Filmmakers workshop initiatives.

XAVIER NEWBURY

Media Intern and Presenter

Xavier has worked as a volunteer in the Swiss Alps transporting cheese with mules to haymaking. He has always had an affinity for writing, regularly writing his own songs, which he’s performed at concerts. He has cowritten short stories with published poetry. Growing up in Switzerland and graduating from an International Baccalaureate school, Xavier has always been surrounded by different cultures and languages.

He has a keen interest in two proposed projects: first, the work of Alain Gachat, the ‘Water Wizard’, due to the mounting human pressure on the water end of the energy nexus. Second, the EPFL’s Transnational Red Sea Centre, due to the fascinating potential for marine wildlife and ecosystems to adapt to climate change. His focus is on environmental degradation and pollution, plus restoring marine and land ecosystems; He is also concerned by the future of human

and natural freshwater systems in the face of increasing urbanisation, agricultural expansion and climate change.

The WIKI

Centennial Expedition:

Exploring the past, present and future of the Mediterranean.

Global Reporting

As we have done in the past in Geneva, Istanbul, and Nairobi, we will organize with partner institutions and sponsors select reporting trips and workshops on key Mediterranean issues linked to conferences, tourism initiatives and other events. These will include invited journalists from major media across the globe who will produce credible stories on challenges and solutions that matter.

Establish a core editorial, production, development, and distribution team. Develop a special HelpSaveTheMed Homepage and aggregator to be linked to the Global Insights website platform and other media partners across the globe.

Commission 10+ stories a month, including quality photography, cartoons and other graphics. The ‘‘best of’’ will be published in a Special Med Edition (Print & Online) of Global Insights Magazine (76pp/10,000 copies) for complementary distribution to schools, universities, port authorities, town halls and tourist information centres, yacht clubs, museums, UN agencies, NGOs and other interested parties… Initially in English only, however additional funding will enable us to produce editions in other languages. Full/half page commercial/ pro bono advertisements will be provided to key sponsors and supporters.

Produce short videos to illustrate the style and content. These films will be distributed worldwide free-of-charge.

Initiate series of audio-visual podcasts as part of Zanzibar Café (Global Insights regular podcast programme).

Appoint 22 Med Youth Media Fellows, one from each Mediterranean country, to report regularly across key social media platforms.

Distribute for free all content in the public interest to interested media, companies, local and international institutions from UNEP to MSF.

Develop partnerships both in the Mediterranean region and worldwide.

Determine an official ‘‘launch’’ host city or port for the three-year circumnavigation of the Mediterranean by the WIKI.

We are seeking startup funding. This will enable us to launch the following initiatives:

JOIN US ON OUR VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY

For over a century WIKI has sailed the world’s oceans. She will provide a unique perspective on what the Med looked like a century ago and how that is reflected in the present day. WIKI was launched at the Deutsche Werke Shipyard in Kiel, Germany, in 1921.

When WIKI was purchased in 1984, she was in very poor condition, her owner, Tom Woods spent the next thirty years restoring and cruising her in the Atlantic and the Med. In 2007, after a complete refit WIKI sailed to Valencia for the America’s Cup; in 2016 she joined the RCNB (Real Club Nautico de Barcelona) where she won the prestigious Helvetica Cup in the same year.

Following her most recent refit between 2020 and 2022 at Monaco Marine in the Gulf of St Tropez, WIKI is now ready to sail in support of HelpSavetheMed.

Please contact us HERE to learn how to support and be part of the HelpSavetheMed expedition.

CONTACT TOM WOODS

9 rue Saint Martin, 83120, Plan de La Tour, FRANCE

tomwoods@woods-media.com

+33(6)75039136

www.woods-media.com

CONTACT EDWARD GIRARDET

64 Rue Joseph Leger, 01170 CESSY, France

edgirardet@gmail.com

+33(6)87144894

www.global-geneva.com