Young EcoLeaders of the Brazilian Rainforest

Dear donors, supporters and friends across the world,

In spite of horrendous rains and flooding we managed to hit the (very muddy) ground running, in preparation for the 2020 school year - which, as you may know, starts After Carnaval. (And Carnaval, in case you missed it, is this week!) 

In fact the school year starts at the beginning of February, but it doesn't really get going until After Carnaval. But the first days of the school year are super important, because this is the time when we have to ensure that our program gets inserted into the school calendar, and the best way to do this is to get the teachers really excited about it.The kids love us to bits, but sometimes we have to work hard to convince the teachers - and that's what we've been focusing on. 

So when we get invited to Staff Training Days, it's our job to ensure that the teachers have a wonderful time and that Staff Training Day becomes Staff Falling in Love with the Forest Day. And our EcoLeaders team has been working with the State Association of Environmental Educators and running around the local schools to make sure that the teachers catch something of the vision. 

Muddy roads, sporadic power cuts, internet outages, we can face them all on our quest to make sure that the teachers understand that sending the students into the forest is far more than an enjoyable outing - although it's that too! So we do what it takes to get the teachers on board, and this year is looking really good. Lots of teachers tell us they're looking forward to hosting us in the classrooms and sending the children into the forest - when the roads improve!  

All of which will be starting as from the next week or so, and school will continue right through the end of the year.

With your help, dear donors, we'll be able to do great things with the 2,000 students that we aim to include in this year's program. Two thousand young champions to help save the world. How exciting is that? 

Thank you for being on this journey with us, and please tell your friends and family, and ask them to tell their networks, and support us if they can! The more young champions we raise, the better the chance for the future of the forests - which affects us all, wherever we live.

And you're always welcome to come visit, if you're ever in our neck of the woods!

with love from Marina and EcoLeaders team

PS Please check out the video link we're enclosing and meet EcoLeader Kalwan!  

Links:

• Iracambi website
• Kalwan young EcoLeader

The end of the year is upon us and here in the forest we’re not short of rain. The trees are overjoyed with the amount of rain that has fallen over the past weeks, which adds to our happiness when we look back at another spectacular year.

The most recent news of the year is really inspiring - we’ve hosted almost a hundred children this past quarter, and our hearts are full of hope to see the new generation that is emergeing with an ever increasing understanding that our environment urgently needs protecting.

In addition to this we also participated in training sessions for local teachers, aimed at encouraging them to give more prominence to environmental issues in their classrooms. Twenty teachers took part in this training, carried out in partnership with the Regional Interagency Commission on Environmental Education.

Project activities this quarter focused on the human body and our relationship with the natural world, students were invited to take off their shoes, lie on the ground and feel the energy connecting them directly with the forest.

As they closed their eyes they could better hear the sounds of the animals in the forest, feel the wind on their faces, and learn that everything in the earth is energy and it’s that which recycles the nutrients in the soil and nourishes the trees. And it’s the energy from plants that feeds us too!

Along with their teachers, the students also learned about the medicinal plants in the forest and their uses according to traditional knowledge, and they painted their faces with anatto, just as our indigenous relatives do. You can imagine what a party it was with all those faces painted!

In this way all the students who visited Iracambi this quarter learned in practice that everything that we do to protect nature is returned to us through the energy and healing powers of plants. So once we know this we begin to understand that, it’s up to us to take better care of Planet Earth, right?

And. following this train of thought, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who support our project and are partners in raising a new generation of young ecoleaders. We’d love to count on your support next year too, and, of course, on Giving Tuesday (December 3nd.)

And so we send you our very best wishes for the holiday season, wishing you the same abundance that the rains are bringing to the forest!

Links:

• Project Page