At the Leadership Summit in Washington D.C., I had the privilege to be a speaker at the SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) LightningTalks. I shared with 300 UNA -USA members the Fortune Teller. This is my story and the origin of the SDG Fortune Teller:

I came to the U.S. with the idea of education and while I was pursuing my master's degree, I joined the Orange County Chapter and started volunteering actively. This led me to become Chair of Education. With the SDGs, our main goal is to have a better world by 2030. A world capable of finding a balance between people, planet, and prosperity in order to achieve the peace we all want.

This sounds great, but I remember the first time I found out about these goals. I was concerned and excited at the same time. Concerned, because after having 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) we jumped to 17…and excited for the great potential these goals have for the world.

The reality is that many individuals, not just in the U.S. but also globally, were not familiar with the 8 MDG during the past 15 years.  Now, let’s imagine 17 new goals to learn, with 169 associated targets that are indivisible and intertwined.

At this point, as Chair of Education of UNA-OC, I was thinking of my responsibility to educate, communicate, and spread this valuable and relevant information. I was aware of the new challenges, but also aware of the new opportunities. Consequently, I developed something to help me with this task…I created the SDG Fortune Teller.

I tested the idea locally, and later at the division level...I believe in shooting for the stars and landing on galaxies. I believe this idea has not just potential nationwide, but also worldwide, that is why I am translating this tool into other languages.

I believe the objective of 193 countries working toward 17 goals and 169 targets requires knowledge and involvement from every single person at different levels, and the SDG Fortune Teller is a good start.

The idea is simple. Two SDG Fortune Tellers. SDG Fortune Teller 1 has the first eight SDGs (Show the first SDG Fortune Teller) and the other fortune teller has the remaining 8 SDGs (Show the second SDG Fortune Teller). Both work together, you can play with one or both.  The last SDG, #17, is on the reverse side of the paper as a large picture. This is because the fortune teller works with multiples of 8, but also because Goal 17 is Partnership for the Goals. This goal is vital since it shows the importance of cohesive and coherent work among all governments, entities and individuals. Finally, the reverse side of the SDG Fortune Teller (Show the reverse), besides having SDG #17, has the UN SDG website as a reference resource. Teachers, educators, kids and parents can access the website to learn more about the goals. The idea of the Fortune Teller is to start a conversation, permeate schools, museums and institutions to increase awareness of our agenda and goals. It is crucial for society, and especially kids to learn how they can be active actors in daily ways. We start educating them at an early stage and they will have a mindset that involves partnership, compassion and sustainability.

Finally, this tool has been translated into the official UN Languages: English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Chinese and Russian and I am currently working on other languages such as Farsi and Vietnamese. I  have distributed more than 1,000 Fortune Tellers in the US and South America to adults and kids…And with the results, I am developing other tools to spread the SDGs since the 17 goals need cooperation and work from different levels, but the first step in this critical agenda is to educate people about them, and the fortune teller is a visual and interactive way to do so.

To learn more about the Sustainable Development Goals visit their website