The Power of One Child – Global Action Classroom, a project of the Earth Child Institute, in collaboration with the Environmental Conservation Education program at NYU, was launched on January 21, 2012, and is now underway. Our first working group meeting with partners in six countries was a great success. Participants for the project herald from Brazil, Qatar, Nigeria, Nepal, Ghana, Seychelles, and the U.S., and the team is still growing. The project has a clear and simple focus: to connect children from sites around the world through shared experiences, shared purpose, and shared humanity though our virtual classroom. Our goal is to show that kids have the power to take action, that they have something valuable to contribute to and share with the world, and that they have the ability and the right to speak about what they want for their own future.

After logging in to our Skype meeting and getting past minor technical challenges, working group participants shared introductions about their amazing work. Ranging from large-scale, youth tree-planting projects in rural communities in Nepal to building capacity for children in challenged schools across Africa and the Middle East to youth group climate change activities geared toward the UN Rio+20 conference to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this June and beyond, the list was quite impressive.

This is a powerhouse team that highlights the potential of international cooperation toward social good; we are capable individuals with the shared goal of helping children and youth take direct action in their communities toward the alleviation of poverty, ignorance, and environmental degradation. We already know that kids have amazing strength and resources; through this project we hope to nurture it, encourage it, and let them fly.

By giving kids the opportunity to interact with their peers around the world, to learn about each other’s work, to smile together at their shared experiences, we can change lives. This is what the Power of One Child – Global Action Classroom is seeking to do—to facilitate the spreading of this type of life-changing inspiration on a global scale. And better yet, our methodology enables us to work quickly, with the aim of presenting our results through a video to UN delegates at the Rio+20 conference in June, with enormous potential for expansion of efforts toward the climate change COP18 in Doha and beyond.

As ECI founder Donna Goodman puts it, “The Global Action Classroom project is especially exciting and innovative because of its multi-dimensional aspects, allowing us to encourage and strengthen youth leaders, highlight the local actions and capacities of children, and facilitate global connections between youth and children in service to Mother Earth.”

If you would like to help sponsor the work of ECI or one of our youth partners please feel free to contact us; your encouragement will go a long way toward supporting our work and supporting the growth and empowerment of children around the world.

Lee Frankel-Goldwater
Earth Child Institute, Project Coordinator
Power of One Child – Global Action Classroom