Education Brazil Project #17660

Young EcoLeaders of the Brazilian Rainforest

by Iracambi

Project Report | Jul 29, 2015
Hot Winter in the Rainforest!

By Guilherme Valvasori | Project Coordinator

Mining Meeting in Belizario

Dear friends of Young Eco-Leaders of the Rainforest,

It's winter in the south hemisphere, but certain themes have kept things hot in the Atlantic Rainforest!

We're at the end of July, school break for the school and also for the Young Eco-Leaders program. Important things have changed since we've last met, keeping our program leaders busy to adjust their plans for the next semester.

At the end of last month, right after our last class of the first semester, there was a meeting organized in Belizario to discuss bauxite mining in our community. To our surprise, there were five mining employees to answer questions and gather information about the community's position regarding the theme. The people who were present made clear that mining goes against all the plans we have for our region. We are in an important watershed, atlantic rainforest refuge and our people depend on the fertility of their lands to generate food and income. We've asked them, more than once, to please leave us and forget their plans for our area. Still, they've answered they would proceed with individual negotiations, following the modern moto of a society that privatizes profits and socialize losses (environment and social).

This situation created several themed community work groups, suh as communication, events, education, law, politics and education, which now mobilize actions in all the spheres with a chance to push back the mining iniciatives.

Thus, our program Young Eco-Leaders of the Rainforest is now part of the community education mobilization, and on the next semester we'll learn as much as we can about bauxite mining, providing our youth a solid base to act as knowledge multipliers, leading iniciatives in the school from the inside.

And as we were on vacation, we also had a chance to have fun! We organized a trail to Itajuru Peak, the highest in southeast of Serra do Brigadeiro State Park. We began the trail real early, 6:00 a.m., which might explains why half of our group were absent and the sleepy faces in the pictures. Still, for those who joined us for a hiking day in the state park, they had a priviledged perspective to comtemplate nature's richness, our community's landscape and all the wonderfull and vulnerable things of this place called home.

Thanks for supporting our program. Your contribution was never so important as it is now.

Gui, Binka, and all the Young Eco-Leaders Team

Young Eco-Leaders participating in the meeting

Trail to Itajuru - Starting Point/sleepy faces

Itajuru Peak - 1640m above sea level

Links:

More info about the mining meeting - in portuguese

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May 11, 2015
May news!

By Guilherme Valvasori | Project Coordinator

Visit to Muriaes biggest Water Treatment Station

Hello, dear friends of the Young Eco-Leaders!

It’s been almost two months since our program started, and we have lots to share!

The first good news is that, in partnership with Belizario’s local church, we’ve managed to convince the water supply company to give the district the use of one of their big trucks twice a week so they can send their recyclable waste to a recycling association in Muriae. Recycling is of major importance for places like Belizario and Rosario da Limeira which lie above gigantic bauxite mines (the second largest in Brazil) – aluminum is the most profitable material recycled material, so the more that is recycled by the communities, the less mining companies will feel the need to exploit the currently untouched local resources. Iracambi´s community mobilization in a recent past was crucial to preserve natural resources and forest fragments. A strong society organization supported by Iracambi is therefore critical to deterring the mining companies.

And where do the Young Eco-Leaders fit in this initiative? Leading, of course. They are going to be part of the community mobilization, visiting houses and educating people on how to separate their recyclable waste and put organic waste in good use. Isn’t that cool?

Our current semester is well underway, and we have just concluded our first theme: water. After some classroom learning on the topic, the students helped our volunteer Jacqueline Reu with her water quality project, carrying out practical research using bio-indicators in Iracambi’s streams. As part of this topic, we also took them to the biggest water treatment station in Muriae, so they could check out how the water flows in urban context. We also visited two rural producers: one who has no more water in his property after the hard drought and now depends on a good relationship with his neighbor to live and produce; and another one who believes his farm is a good model of how to effectively manage water resources. We wrapped up our water theme by discussing how climate change is impacting the rain cycle and our relationship with water. In just two months we have visited a lot of places and involved our students in a whole range of activities related to environmentalism and leadership. But this year has just begun, and we have much more ground to cover. The next topic will be food, an extremely important theme in a region mainly composed by rural family producers, and we’re all looking forward to have more practical activities as the program continues.

And, once again, it is important to say that all these wonderful things are only possible because of people like you, dear friends and supporters, who put your faith in us.

With our rainforest regards,

Gui, Binka, Robin and all the Young Eco-Leaders!

Young Eco-Leaders exploring the Rainforest!

Limeiras Team

First meeting with Belizarios Team

Links:

iracambis website

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Mar 4, 2015
2015 kicks off!

By Guilherme Valvasori | Project Coordinator

Hello, Dear Young Ecoleaders friends!

Summer has oficially come and gone, as so did carnaval in Brazil. It means work time has finally arrived again, and of course our Young Eco-Leaders program is ready to kick-off!

So, what´s new this year?

The first news is Diogo, our former Program Coordinator, has decided to migrate interely to agroecology´s path and will no longer be involved with Education for Sustaninability. The second is Guilherme, ex-Volunteer and Research Centre Coordinator, is more than happy to take over the Program, training his education skills and working closer to the community.

What else?

This time, before starting the program, we decided to present it to the local community, so they could analyze it and share their perspective. The students, parents, teachers and local producers loved to be part of this semester´s planning, and the best thing is now we not only have a project for the community, but also a community group effort to educate our kids in Environmental Education. Isn´t it cool?

Besides that, we´ll do our best to stress citizenship and leadership along all the course. We´re going to work with the "WEF (Water, Energy and Food) Sustainability Nexus". The idea is to bring hard science first, and then take them to a series of visits to observe how these global challenges are presented in local reality, urban areas and contryside. After each cycle they shall present their reports for the community (parents, teachers, local producers, politicians), pointing out challenges and discussing possible solutions.

And what about experiments?

There was already a science fair happening every semester in Limeira. Thus, we thought "What if we link the sciece fair to local challenges and our Young Eco-Leaders Progam?". And so it is, we´ll encourage the students to build their projects having in mind the WEFNexus, so when the fair comes our Young Eco-Leaders, who are already part of the event, will vote for the projects they´d like to put into practice with the local community. We´ll also give prizes for the teams which present the best ideas for local challenges. And of course along all the semester we´ll do our best to involve the children in local matters related to sustainability, citizenship and practical work, such as reforesting efforts and organized ecological walks. We want our young fellows active in the community, and we know they love action!

And lots of other news really soon, as the program shall begin on next monday, 9th of March.

With our best rainforest regards and enthusiasm,

Gui, Binka and all the Young Eco-Leaders Team

Links:

About the WEF Nexus

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