Meet Andreia Olaru & Antoine Bonel, Sweden's Country Coordinators
Who are you?
Andreia: Andreia Olaru, based in Gothenburg, Sweden!
Antoine: I am Antoine, a nature-loving engineer, green belt and co-Country Coordinator for Sweden, where I’ve lived for almost 8 years now 🙂 From Stockholm, I’m sharing this CC mission with my dear friend Andreia, who is in Gothenburg. One CC per coast of our big country!
When and how did you join Climate Fresk?
Andreia: It was December 2020 when I joined my first Climate Fresk workshop with my friend Sophia Cheng from the UK. Soon after, I trained to become a facilitator, and in February 2021, I delivered my first workshops. One of my first participants was a climate scientist, so I was fortunate to get relevant feedback from the early stages. Soon after, I became a co-Country Coordinator for Sweden and shifted my career to focus on climate change education. In Climate Fresk colors, I became green in Spring 2022 and blue in June 2024.
Antoine: I remember seeing many posts about Climate Fresk around 2019-2020, and, let’s be frank, barely raising an eyebrow. It is only when I saw that this strange game had also arrived in Stockholm, through the technical university KTH, that it caught my attention for real. Late 2020, I organised a surprise workshop for a group of friends, kindly facilitated by a new volunteer facilitator. Although our group made one of the worst-looking collages I’ve seen, I got totally hooked!
I immediately attended a training session and spent the (semi-confined) Christmas holiday learning how to use this new tool, with the old self-training guide.
Why do you run workshops ?
Andreia: For years, I looked for ways to contribute to our lifetime’s crisis in an impactful and efficient way. I’ve always enjoyed hosting gatherings professionally and privately, and now, finally, they have a better purpose. Every workshop is unique, and everyone learns something. We can’t tackle the challenges ahead if we are not collaborating at all levels, and our workshop is a preview of how we should work together if we want a different world – defining the challenges together, holding space for each other and taking action as a collective toward the same vision.
Antoine: Engineers are taught to understand and simplify problems, but the automatic approach is to try to “fix” them mostly with technical innovations. I appreciate that the workshop invites the participants to a complementary path: keeping a systemic view of the issues, looking inside ourselves, and questioning our values and lifestyles. That’s the human aspect that we need, and that I was missing!
What's your finest moment as a Fresker?
Andreia: This is the most difficult question I often get. I have many lifetime memories from workshops, trainings, and events I’ve attended. One that I remember often was from a corporate training when I told the trainees (like I usually do) that we’re not looking for perfection. We don’t have time for that. We want brave, imperfect people to raise awareness and take action! One of the participants started to cry, thanking me for reassuring them that they didn’t need to reach perfection to show up for their teams or colleagues. I believe that we’re not only raising awareness but also giving hope and courage and normalizing the fact that we can’t demand perfection from the people on the front lines. Including us.
Antoine: The journey is full of beautiful community moments, so this question is difficult to answer 
But a very fulfilling time was when we integrated the Climate Fresk workshops into the first National Citizen Assembly on Climate, in Sweden. This event combined rich interactions between our amazing facilitators, the organisers and their ambitious expectations, and of course with the participants, who were selected to be statistically representative of the Swedish population. Definitely outside of our usual echo circles!
What has Climate Fresk changed in your life?
Andreia: Everything. From how I work, do business, and collaborate with my peers to how I show up daily for my communities. I made friends for life in the Climate Fresk community, and it helped me accomplish a dream – to work alongside my friends. On a personal level, I was already on a sustainable journey, but it still helped me to speed up or prioritise some changes.
Antoine: A better question is: what has it not changed? Seriously, correlation is not causality, but Climate Fresk has sneaked through most aspects of my life like for many other Freskers. From my communities in Stockholm, my family, and to my engineering job, I’ve played with many people. But of course the biggest change is the approach to climate change that being a Fresker teaches us: mixing science, community engagement, group facilitation with psychology and taking care of each other!
What is Climate Fresk in a nutshell?
Andreia: Our workshop is a beacon of hope and a powerful driver of change. We empower people to unlock their imagination and their potential.
Antoine: It has become a cornerstone that bonds and empowers people all around the world to lead climate action!
What does Climate Fresk look like in Sweden?
Andreia: With more than 300 trained facilitators and 6500 people reached, we are on a good track! We are growing in hundreds of participants per month, and during some months, we have multiple big events going on simultaneously in different parts of the country. As a Coordinator, I remember how I wished to not be involved in every action or partnership and only hear about amazing things happening. We are there now, and I can’t be happier. I go to our monthly calls excited to hear about the extraordinary work that the community is doing.
We, as Coordinators, also focus on nurturing and creating opportunities for the community to meet, learn and collaborate. We have now organized two multi-workshop events this year and the community is “hungry” for more! Looking ahead, our challenge is reaching the smaller towns and communities in Sweden. We have active facilitator networks in the first three biggest cities, and we now need to reach other corners of the country.
Antoine: A smaller scale of the global CF movement! A lot of great, inspiring facilitators, with diverse personalities and backgrounds. Most organisations that work with social-environmental topics know about CF now, and we were even told that “Climate Fresk connects”! We’re gaining maturity with new blue and green belts, more native Swedish speakers, but also diversifying towards a truly multi-workshop community. We’re happy to see new local groups forming in the different regions of Sweden, and will put more efforts to decentralise away from the big cities, to involve more parts of society!
Which action principle* inspires you most? Do you have an anecdote to share about it?
Andreia: The most fruitful discussions in the debriefing part happen when the participants are willing to flex their imagination muscles – when we start brainstorming ideas from a clear, abundant vision that we want to reach instead of scarcity and shortages. So, let’s unleash our imagination and define what’s possible.
Antoine: Think big and stay humble! We had amazing community discussions after our multi-workshop festivals in Stockholm. Exploring the impacts from so many different fields is a bit overwhelming, but we naturally shared our thoughts on wellbeing, how to share our time and efforts to remain energised and happy. Focusing our action on the local level is a good way to find meaning and connections, while remaining humble to what we can change on the global level. Think global, act local!
Can you think of another question you'd like to be asked?
Andreia: « What keeps me going after so many workshops and trainings for all types of audiences, and after seeing and understanding so much more about the state of our world? » What gives me resilience in today’s world is a strong sense of belonging to something bigger than myself and a community showing up for each other with generosity and empathy every single day.
Antoine: “What’s the future of our global community” – to which I would suggest: a federation of local multi-workshop hubs/structures, united by global tools and platforms, with not-for-profit purpose and of course a democratic governance. I hope that the association will be able to continue in this direction, reenergising our community and preventing its “uberisation”!