There are places where you walk in and immediately feel that something is being built. ChangeNOW, held this year from March 30 to April 1 at the Grand Palais in Paris, is one of them. Bringing together over 40,000 participants from 140 countries, the summit gathers innovators, business leaders, NGOs and engaged citizens around one shared ambition: accelerating the transition toward a more sustainable world. For three days, the Grand Palais becomes a global showcase for over 1,000 concrete solutions spanning energy, regenerative agriculture, circular economy, sustainable mobility, and biodiversity. And our ONG Pim Pam Pum was there.
Our Founding Director, Mercedes Carolina Durán, attended the summit on Tuesday and Wednesday, immersing herself in the ecosystem of changemakers, forging connections, and representing the NGO across two days of conferences, networking, and discovery. On Wednesday, April 1st, she was joined by two other members of our team: Aïssatou Diallo and Mikhaëla Nomenjanahary.
We did not come to ChangeNOW on our own. We were invited by the Jane Goodall Institute France which is an organisation whose mission resonates deeply with our own. Through its Roots & Shoots programme, the Jane Goodall Institute France works alongside young people, encouraging them to take concrete action in favor of humans, animals, and our shared environment. Being welcomed into their space was a reminder that the work Pim Pam Pum does: giving visibility to women living through the world’s most painful crises, belongs to a much larger movement of people who refuse to look away.
This year’s edition carried a particular emotional weight: it was the first ChangeNOW held since the passing of Dr. Jane Goodall in October 2025, and her absence was felt throughout.
The highlight of our afternoon was a moment we had not fully anticipated: the grand finale of the Concours d’Éloquence pour une Paix Durable (The Eloquence Competition for Lasting Peace), organised by the Jane Goodall Institute France as a special in memoriam edition dedicated to Jane Goodall’s legacy. Six young finalists took to the stage to speak on the peace necessary between humans, animals, and our shared environment. The competition was created as a tribune for the themes of preserving life and peace because hope requires both reflection and action, and because words are powerful and inspiring speeches are necessary. Watching six students stand before a room full of investors, activists, and NGO leaders and speak with conviction about the world they want to live in was genuinely moving. They were nott reading from scripts; they were making a case, with the kind of urgency that only comes from actually believing what you’re saying.
After the competition, we had the chance to speak with Daphné Bouhelier, Head of the Roots & Shoots Environmental Education Programme at the Jane Goodall Institute France. First, we thanked her for inviting us to this event which represented a lot for our organization. It was a brief talk about the contest but it is the kind of exchange that feels like the beginning of something. Sharing moments with people that share the same perspective and values.
At first glance, a climate-focused summit might seem distant from our work. But spending the afternoon at ChangeNOW reminded us that the threads connecting environmental collapse, humanitarian crisis, and the silencing of women’s voices are not separate, they are the same thread, pulled in different directions. The women we work with through VISIBLES, photographers living in conflict zones, in countries marked by poverty and violence are often the first to bear the consequences of a destabilised world. Their stories are not separate from the conversations happening at ChangeNOW. They are central to them.
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