Growing up, Allison Gacad watched her mother deal with calls every week from siblings and relatives dealing with the climate crisis in the Philippines.

“Being young and having that experience incessantly, it shapes you,” Gacad told the Vancouver Tech Journal. “I think it inevitably shows you how the issue of climate change will always hit those who weren't responsible for the problems the hardest. I think living in Canada and recognizing that privilege [...], there's a sense of, ‘What can I do to address the problems?’”