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ONE DROP’s touring water experience, AQUA: A JOURNEY INTO THE WORLD OF WATER, made its debut at the Musée de la civilisation à Québec (MCQ) on October 26. An all-ages voyage into the world of water, the interactive learning experience will be at the MCQ until April 10, 2011. In addition to taking part in the AQUA experience, children, adults, families and school groups are invited to participate in on-site workshops designed to further their understanding of humankind’s relationship with its most precious natural resource.

AQUA’s Quebec City opening began with a speech to the media by ONE DROP executive director, Lili-Anna Pereša, at a morning press conference. That evening, at the official premiere of AQUA, Guy Laliberté, chair of ONE DROP, welcomed invited guests, including friends of ONE DROP and the museum, partners, collaborators and representatives of organizations active in sustainable development.

Find out more about water in the Quebec City area and about AQUA at the MCQ, including ticket information, and dive in!

The installation Cycl O, an individual touring experience, was last seen at the LA SOIRÉE ONE DROP that took place on December 1 in Miami, Florida. Cycl O—a movable series of large and small touch-screen monitors showcasing all there is to know about fresh water (and even why we are 70% dinosaur!)—is still as captivating as the AQUA experience, currently being enjoyed at Quebec City’s Musée de la civilisation until April 2011. Unlike AQUA, however, Cycl O quickly shares its interactive and dynamic experience in less than two minutes.

Bilingual and easily accessible, this touring experience stays true to ONE DROP’s message: fresh water is a precious and finite resource, there’s more demand for it than ever before and we must protect it for future generations. Designed to move people as much as it will move around to various locations, Cycl O offers everyone the opportunity to learn more about the water challenges our planet faces, what can be done to help preserve water and how ONE DROP’s “tripod approach” is helping communities around the world gain access to safe water.

In April 2011, as Haiti continues to rebuild itself 15 months after a devastating earthquake, ONE DROP’s social arts and popular education program will introduce a show that’s never been produced quite like this before. In cooperation with Théâtre des petites lanternes, Toto B. and OXFAM Quebec, the words and thoughts of around 300 Haitians will be transformed into a multidisciplinary, educational show that will playfully and artistically promote the value of water, water sanitation and hygiene. The show is aimed at mobilizing the communities so that they can participate in the reconstruction process of their country.

During Théâtre des petites lanternes’s creative process—called the Great Collection of Words—Haitian citizens both in Haiti and in Montreal were asked to share their ideas and words about the situation in Haiti based upon the following themes: the earthquake, water, the reconstruction and my country’s beauty. Through a process called “condensation,” their candid and colourful thoughts were analyzed, as the teams began reading over the deluge of thoughts and emotions while using a guide to help them determine what words could be employed in the first draft of the show’s script.

The show is now in its pre-production stage, and ONE DROP will once again rely on Théâtre des petites lanternes to bring to life this multidisciplinary creation blending the passionate words of the Haitian people with circus magic, rara (one of Haiti’s traditional music) and dance, allowing them to share their vision and contribution for Haiti’s reconstruction.

In January 2011, ONE DROP begins working in El Salvador’s department of Morazán, to improve living conditions and access to water, and promote responsible water management through social arts and popular education activities. Accompanied by representatives from ONE DROP’s Canadian partners in the arts and education component of this project—Yvan Côté of Théâtre de l’Aubergine and Hélène Desperrier of Théâtre Parminou—ONE DROP project manager, Tania Vachon, went to El Salvador at the end of October 2010 to prepare implementation plans.

"Our start-up is aimed at organizing and structuring the project in terms of short-, medium- and long-term results, as well as studying ways to measure our progress," explains Tania. "To get the project firmly under way, funds will also be required. During October’s three-day trip, our group was also able to discuss our partners’ role in creating educational shows and activities for the three-year project."

Since ONE DROP’s last newsletter, Project El Salvador’s scope has been re-assessed so as to maximize its impact. While maintaining the number of families who will benefit from this project, ONE DROP and its partners are now concentrating on two rural municipalities whose survival is crucial, Cacaopera and Corinto, where the need for support is tremendous.

India is as rich in culture as it is complex. At the end of October 2010, after almost eight months of planning and organization, ONE DROP arrived for its first exploratory mission in the country. Since then, we’ve continued to assess potential partnerships and develop plans for a three-part social arts and popular education project expected to support people in a rural community south of Bhubaneswar, a city on India's east coast. ONE DROP’s chief of operations, Danielle Valiquette, and the organization’s director of international cooperation and development, Paul Laporte, were accompanied by Maureen Martineau of Quebec City’s Théâtre Parminou for the week-long visit.

Each of Project India’s three components (shows, workshops and publications) will be aimed at entertaining people from all generations while educating them about water, our planet’s most precious resource, and promoting its responsible management. ONE DROP will annex this project to an existing access-to-water project that has been implemented by an important nongovernmental Indian organization in the targeted zone of intervention (Orissa). Building such a project in a country like India poses its own challenges, as Paul notes: “We must take our time discovering and understanding this fascinating country if we hope to use Indian arts and culture to effectively convey our message, mission and dream.” Project India should get under way in late 2011.