Young EcoLeaders of the Brazilian Rainforest

Dear donors,

We hope you are having a wonderful holiday season, and we can't wait to share some exciting news from Iracambi!

As you may remember, we have a semester-long program for Young EcoLeaders where students learn critical thinking and leadership skills.

We also host every year around one thousand children from schools within a radius of 100 km from Iracambi. These students join us for a day-long rainforest immersion experience, which they love. 

But there is so much more to do.

Here in this isolated rural area, opportunities for young people are few and many of them move to the city as soon as they leave school.  Since most of them are first generation students, it's often hard for them to navigate their way into their chosen careers.  During the pandemic the schools were closed for eighteen months, and as a result some of the students dropped out altogether, while others are still way behind where they should be for their ages. “Many young people still don't feel like they belong in the job market or the lifestyle imposed by society, says Dayana our education coordinator, "and that's precisely where the project comes in: validating dreams, encouraging new experiences, and awakening existing potential."

Since we are now in the rainy season and the roads can be challenging, we decided to bring the program to the school, inviting guest speakers and hosting online speakers. Our first speaker was a psychologist who skilfully guided the chilren through the process of aiming high.

Online speakers included Vitoria, who recently graduated from their school and told her classmates about her pathway into the local federal university, emphasizing that the education is free. Next they heard from Luisa, now an Iracambi staff member, who talked about her pathway through an international volunteeering experience during covid which took her to Iceland, and later into university and a job at Iracambi. Lastly they heard from Russell, a Brazilian American, who volunteered at Iracambi some years ago, and is now at graduate school in the US, focusing on an anthropological study of this area.   

We're excited about this program, and we'll be sure to share more of the students' experiences with you when we continue after the Christmas break.

Our youth are one of our most precious resources, and we are sparing no efforts to help them flourish throughout their school careers and beyond. 

Thank you for joining us on this pathway! 

with love, appreciation, and every good wish for the New Year, 

Dayana and the Iracambi education team