Environmental Education Programme
September 20 2022
An environmental education programme was carried out in June 2022 in five communities of the Jauaperi river (RESEX Lower Rio Branco Jauaperi) and benefited 70 children.
The programme was named Rio de Luz (River of lights). The name was chosen to represent the transmission of knowledge (customary and newly acquired) to future generations, a knowledge that will guarantee a sustainable livelihood in the region. The river-dwellers are embedded in a fragile ecosystem and are at the heart of practicing the stewardship responsibilities on which the region's future depends.
We designed a logo to illustrate the programme and used it on the material.
A volunteer travelled to the communities to present a two-day workshop in each selected community, developed by the Amazon Charitable Trust in collaboration with our on-site project manager and operating Trustee Emanuela Evangelista, as well as the schoolteachers and in line with the national curriculum.
For this first edition, the curriculum focused on the theme of water and the Rainforest. The lessons consisted of two days of interventions with classroom pedagogical activities and moments of outdoor fun-training, thematic and practical lessons on waste management, separate collection, recycling and their proper disposal and, finally, thematic lessons on forest and river ecology, water pollution and prevention.
The programme has been constructed ad-hoc for the children of the Jauaperi, based on the traditional knowledge of the river-dweller and took into consideration certain limitations (due to a remote environment and lack of infrastructure) but also opportunities to enable the children to act as custodians of a fragile ecosystem. At the end of the two days workshops, the children received a diploma which confirmed their attendance to the programme and were given a bag with the logo and project partners.
We hope to replicate this programme in the future and scale it up to further community on the river to benefit more children. The programme (which has yet to be evaluated) was well received by the communities' leaderships, teachers and education secretaries, and it shows the appetite to develop educational material tailored to the river-dwellers population and contextualize in the Amazonian rural reality. The programme was made possible thanks to a grant from the Italian Foundation Cerchi D'onda to our executive partner Amazonia Onlus and the logistic support of the CoopXixuaú. The grant paid for transportation on the river, boatmen and the school cantine during those ten days of activities.