Young EcoLeaders of the Brazilian Rainforest

Good morning, dear donors!

We hope you are doing well, and wnt to send you rainforest love, and so many thanks for your support to our educational programs! 

And, since this week we are in between our online courses, we want to tell you of how your support helped to change the life of one of our Ecoleaders and set him on his way to a career in science.

Meet Rafael, born and raised within a couple of miles of the Research Center. He comes from a family of smallholder farmers, and his first contact with rainforest science was when he joined our Junior Science program and started paying weekly visits to our forest trails.

Rafael was a first-generation student, and he fell so completely in love with the forest that he never missed a lesson.

His first big break came nine years ago when he starred in a short film Iracambi: Junior Scientists. You can find it here. In the film, he is demonstrating water monitoring and explaining why it's important. And what shines through is the fact that Rafael absolutely loves what he is doing!  Here he is, towards the end of the video, talking about the chance to get involved in real science.  “And it´s us kids doing it! It's really cool!”

Rafael graduated from school and went on to study in the local tech institute. From there he went to the  Federal University. And now he’s enrolled in the Master´s Program.  

So thank you, dear donors, for supporting kids like Rafael. His first introduction to rainforest science changed his life completely.

We thought you’d like to know!

Take care of yourselves and we'll talk again soon, 

with love from Yasmin and the Iracambi team  

Links:

• Rafael's starring role!