amon kizawa

origamiforsdgs

Amon Kizawa is a 17-year-old advocate for the Global Goals, driving collective action towards environmental and ocean conservation through art and design, computer science, and sustainability. 

Born in Japan, the birthplace of origami, he started folding when he was two years old. Ever since then, he really enjoyed pushing his limits and overcoming them every time he encountered a complex piece of art. He found the power of the art of bonding people together when he was six years old. He attended a funeral of his favorite great-grandmother and saw other attendees fold an Origami crane and put it in her coffin for her. At that time, he realized that origami can connect people that transcends language.

At the same time, Amon loved nature, especially the ocean, as his brother and he would often play and swim in the sea. From the day he learned in middle school about the plastic polluting the beautiful ocean he loved, he began to take action to advance SDG 14: Life Below Water. 

He started with activities inside the school in Kamagaku SDGs, a school SDGs group in which he was one of the initial members and later became the president. He led more than 20 members to organize beach cleanups, intercultural sessions with Vietnamese students, and, in a school festival, workshops about SDGs. He then began to try making an international impact by creating a podcast series 'Teens Ocean Voice' with youth across Asia. He hopes to inspire youths around the world to take action by providing knowledge about innovative technologies and solutions to marine issues, and unique opinions from teens' perspectives. 

Amon also believes that applying technology to his activity is crucial as he recognizes a lot of strong connections between technology and Origami, as well as technology and SDGs. Computational Origami, which utilizes 3D modeling and mathematical calculation to transform a sheet into 3D objects, nowadays has become an important research topic in the technology field. He hopes to utilize computer graphics like 3D modeling to visualize ideas so that SDGs can be understood by even more people. As an origami expert, SDG enthusiast, and programmer, he is delighted to work across these fields to further achieve his goals, at university and beyond. 

For his ocean advocacy, apart from being nominated into the Youth Council of the Foundation, he is recognized as a teen advocate by the committee of UN World Oceans Day, an UNESCO initiative.