EcoEscuelas (EcoSchools)

EcoEscuelas (EcoSchools) project is an initiative developed every year since 2012 in Venezuela, with the aim of promoting environmental and sustainability education, peace and development in educational institutions for children and adolescents between the ages of 7 and 18 including teaching staff. The initiative of the project arose after the uncertainty of the activists of the organization in the face of the lack of environmental education in Venezuela, for which they proposed to create a mechanism to fill that void and the Eco Schools turned out to be an adequate way to promote education in this area, linking the training program for the promotion of peace and development. During the development of the project, the following activities were carried out:

1. Mapping of educational institutions that could benefit from the project. The aspects to consider were:

• Number of students: The purpose was to have a greater scope, so that the educational institutions with the largest student population were more attractive for the development of the project.
• Location: We sought to develop the project taking into account the geographical distribution, so that we tried to reach different areas of the State, taking into account accessibility.
• Vulnerability and needs: Effectively, an attempt was made to serve the most vulnerable educational units and those with the greatest need to attend to environmental education issues.

2. Training workshops in educational institutions aimed at children and adolescents: During the development of this stage of the project, the following workshops were held in each of the educational institutions served. Cycle of workshops by thematic area:

• Diagnostic test and basic introductory workshop on the Environment, Sustainability and its importance in our lives.
• Recycling and its relevance for solid waste management and environmental impact reduction.
• Flora and Fauna of the Region.
• Importance of Biodiversity and its protection.
• Environmental Legislation and defense of Environmental Rights.
• Environment and peace.

Each of these workshops lasted two hours each, carrying out the application of the planned diagnostic tests, and giving the necessary information for learning and achieving the stated objectives. Each cycle of workshops was held in the different (grades) of the institution in each of the sections.

3. Educational shots in open spaces or “street shots”, which consisted of talks in open spaces with didactic material to share, with the aim of reaching more people and promoting the themes of the project.

People were instructed on the issues of the project, and they were given the tools to know how to carry out complaints in environmental and sustainable matters, for the defense of biodiversity, environmental rights and protection. Such objectives were achieved through the development of workshops, in which two kinds of diagnostic tests were applied, one pre-talk and the other post-talk, to evaluate the knowledge they had, the weaknesses they possessed, and later the impact of the information received.

In addition, also with the public shots where two types of surveys were applied: one pre-talk and another post-talk, to determine in which aspects the people had more weaknesses, and what should be the focus of the information given, also through the work in social networks, it was possible to reduce the indifference regarding the subject, and through the elaboration of the action route created according to the age of the people (since they worked with people of different ages), they managed to know how to act in case of wanting to report an environmental crime.

More than 1,500 trained and educated in matters of Environment, Biodiversity and Legislation and environmental defense, peace and development.