Young EcoLeaders of the Brazilian Rainforest

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