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

As its first project, the organization established a library in three schools within the Dolpa district, benefiting 1,000 students and their teachers, also training some of them to maintain their community’s library. The engagement aspect present in this project has also translated to all other programs started by ECI Nepal, from involving local youth in door-to-door campaigns to inform people about reducing fossil-fuel energy use to encouraging children to plant 1,000 trees and take responsibility for their tree’s survival.

Furthermore, ECI Nepal has also started educational workshops with different target groups. So far, the two programs of this sort that have been organized were a women literacy workshop, in which ECI Nepal also educated women on child nutrition and the effects of pollution on children, and a “Climate Change and Children” workshop in three different schools, in which children were educated on the effects of climate change on their lives and community.

ECI Nepal’s growing projects have also been leading to the internal growth of the organization, which has been recruiting online and on-site volunteers to assist with their programs and future goals. With its mind set in the future of the organization, ECI Nepal has been looking for donors to fund the continuation of its environmental education projects and new ideas, like solar energy for schools, school-based gardening, as well as REDD+ and WASH focused projects. Furthermore, it has been organizing the launch of its Green Schools campaign, which will culminate in the training of local and international volunteers, who will help with environmental education in schools and colleges in Nepal and hopefully take this model to their own home-countries.

For more information contact Prem Bohara (prem@earthchildinstitute.org)

Earth Child Institute Nepal is a national affiliate of Earth Child Institute (ECI), an international non-profit organization committed to combating climate change, deforestation and water scarcity by investing in hands-on environment and educational projects and also empowerment of today’s children and young people for the sustainable future.

In January 2012, ECI Nepal will be launching our Green Schools campaign, which aims to educate, engage and empower the children and young people in schools and colleges of Nepal.

Call for action to Nepalese youth leaders…..

From 10 January to 21 January 2012, this very special team of 20 ECI Nepal youth leaders (10 National/10 international) will learn about and exchange experiences about climate change and its effect on children, while developing innovative plans for action to address these challenges at the community level.

National youth volunteers are invited to share ideas, knowledge, and experience on climate change issues, with a focus on its relation to children, being able to return to their homwtowns with a deeper understanding of teamwork toward environmental action and support for child participation.

Nepalese youth, along with international youth volunteers will learn about opportunities to contribute to the Green Schools Campaign in their own localities with support of ECI’s headquarters and our local offices in Nepal, Ghana, Brazil and other national affiliates.

The time for action is NOW! Want to join our team? Please tell us your story!

During this exchange (Jan 10 to Jan 21), young people will have opportunity to collaborate and lead action;

- 5 days in schools and colleges: As an ECI Nepal youth leader, you will have an opportunity to present your knowledge and ideas for action which will educate children about climate change and empower them to take action to improve local environments. Each day a different youth volunteer will take the lead and will be supported by the others, everyone will get chance to lead the team at least a day in during program.

- 5 days in the field: As an ECI Nepal youth leader, you will travel to other locations where you can inspire and share ideas, knowledge and experience with local young people and facilitate discussion on climate change and young people in relation to the needs and priorities of the local community.

-Special event, 21 January 2012: As an ECI Nepal youth leader you will have a great chance to share your own presentation of climate change and children to more than 500 people. This special event will officially launch ECI Nepal’s Green School campaign. The peer group will democratically select 5 presentations from among all 20 national and international youth volunteers will have chance to present their presentation at special event-first official launching of Green School Campaign.

HOW CAN I TAKE PART?

In order to be part of this 10-day event, where participants will learn and contribute to environmental campaigns with and for children and young people of Nepal, admission with an e-co green card is of NRs. 2500, which is equivalent to NRs. 250 per day. This fee covers expenses related to the workshop and outreach activities. Scholarships are also available on a merit basis.

The ECI Nepal e-co green card is not only a ticket for admission, it is an emerging initiative that represents a local green and sustainable lifestyle with global impact.

Requirement for International Volunteers:

Familiarity with environmental issues, especially climate change and its relation to children – needs, rights and capacity of children to tackle with it, able to prepare and present a PowerPoint presentation to more than 200 school/college students (5 selected will present for the special event at 21 January 2012), strong interpersonal communication (specially working with and for the children and young people), ability to learn and teach environmental issues (local to global), desire to learn and share ideas, stories and experiences on climate change with fellow volunteers, strong commitment to complete the entire cycle of volunteering period (09 to 21 January 2012), interest to apply knowledge from this workshop in their own hometown and to expand the ECI global network of youth leaders, minimum +2 years or equivalent academic level of education (environment related preferred).

Apply Now (Last date of application 06 January 2012) at prem@earthchildinstitute.org

Faceboook

You can reach us by email for further information:

Prem B. Bohara – prem@earthchildinstitute.org
Alina Bezhenar – bezhenar.alina@gmail.com

To learn more about Earth Child Institute’s international activities, please refer to www.earthchildinstitute.org

Download the pdf version here.

educate the children…reforest  Nepal

Earth Child Institute Nepal is a national affiliate of Earth Child Institute (ECI), an international non-profit organization committed to combating climate change, deforestation and water scarcity by investing in hands-on environment and educational projects and also empowerment of today’s children and young people for the sustainable future.

Introduction:

Green School Campaign 2012 is an initiative by Earth Child Institute Nepal to educate and empower children and young people under the age of 18 in environmental issues, especially climate change, and help them adapt to healthy, green, and sustainable lifestyles while planting trees in and around schools. In partnership with 200 schools in 10 districts of Nepal, this campaign aims to conduct various trainings, workshops, and practical classroom teaching in climate change education so that children and young people, along with future generations, will become empowered with the necessary life skills for green, healthy, and sustainable living, which directly contributes to the reduction of carbon emissions and increases their resiliency in the face of climate change.

Children and young people will learn the importance of trees in their lives and also their significant role on mitigation of carbon emissions. They will not only plant a sapling but also take responsibility for the tree as it grows. By instilling the practice of sustainable lifestyle in young lives, we can empower today for a sustainable tomorrow.

The participation of teachers, local community members, and parents will be crucial to the success of this project. Participating schools will function as springboards to engage others in the community in sustainability initiatives.

Project Objectives:

1. To empower 100,000 children and young people to take local action against climate change through climate change education in 200 schools and outreach and mass awareness in their communities around Nepal by 2012
2. To have school children with their parents, teachers, and other local community members plant 100,000 trees in and around schools in Nepal by 2012
3. To train and mobilize 200 core youth leaders and 2,000 young volunteers throughout this campaign and create a strong relationship among local, national, and international volunteers by 2012
4. To nurture a global community of children and young leaders who will learn from one another while restoring Earth’s ecosystems

Description of Project Activities:

a) Capacity Building of Youth leaders and Leadership Trainings

Through climate change educational trainings, workshops, and field trips, this project will empower youth leaders within the Green School Campaign framework so that they can transfer the knowledge and share action with children and young people in schools. Their role as facilitators will help children and young people to identify climate change effects at the local level with special concern on the impacts to their own lives. In this phase, teachers, parents, and community members will be engaged with youth.

b) Planting Program in and around Schools

The planting program is officially known as “The Power of One Child + One Tree = A Sustainable Future for All.” It will consist of 100,000 saplings to be planted by 100,000 children in and around 200 schools of 10 districts of Nepal. Through this activity, children will learn the importance of trees in their lives and also their significant role in mitigation of carbon emissions, which is directly related to climate change.

c) Climate Change Education in Schools

Climate change education will educate children and young people on this global issue that has very local effects. They will learn more about the causes of climate change, its effects on the local level, and how they can contribute to its mitigation by changing their own lifestyles and taking other actions. They will come to understand how their adoption of positive sustainable behaviors today will benefit the environment in the present and in the future.

Participants in the Green School Campaign project will form a tree-planting club. If a similar children’s club already exist, they will help strengthen it.

Implementation Plan and Time-Frame:

1.10.Target Districts:

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