In Rio, young people win a scholarship to take care of the environment – 06/05/2023 – Environment

Used cooking oil, old tires and even worn-out soaps can become raw material for new products. This is what the students of the Environment Jovem initiative learn, who, using waste, create sustainable projects and discover in practice that one person’s garbage is another’s treasure.

Led by the Secretary of State for the Environment and Sustainability of Rio de Janeiro, the project is aimed at young people from low-income communities, who receive a scholarship for the action. During the course, which lasts from six to nine months, they learn about natural sciences, participate in workshops with recyclable materials and, at the end, execute plans to solve an environmental problem in the region where they live.

Classes are separated into membership centers (NUPs) of up to 50 people, present in 41 cities. According to Thiago Pampolha, Secretary for the Environment and Sustainability and deputy governor of the state, the objective is to concentrate the activities of the groups to cover the specific demands of each location.

“Through workshops and monitoring by teachers and technical staff, students receive training to implement projects that benefit the community”, he says.

To participate, young people must be between 16 and 24 years old. They receive a monthly stipend of R$200 if they are present in at least 75% of the activities.

Classes take place between once and twice a week. In the first stage of the course, the groups address topics such as biological cycles, climate change and consumption habits that impact nature.

External actions, some in partnership with private companies, are also part of the students’ routine. Last year, they visited places like AquaRio, a marine aquarium in the state capital, and BioParque, former Zoo.

According to Clarisse Rocha, coordinator of socio-environmental projects at the Department of the Environment, young people come to understand the challenges in their communities based on the knowledge acquired in the course.

“In the beginning, students are not aware of environmental problems. We start building this perception, so that, in the second phase, they can think about what most impacts the population”, says Rocha. It is at this stage that they draw up a local intervention plan, with proposals for the community.

One of the outstanding projects was carried out in Três Rios, a city close to the border with Minas Gerais, where students produced eco-barriers to block the passage of garbage in rivers and prevent flooding. In Campo Grande, in the west zone of Rio, tires were collected to build bins for organic and recyclable waste.

This year, the ten best projects, with greater adhesion and impact, will receive funding from AgeRio (State Development Agency) to be implemented.

In addition to the final project, participants develop smaller products throughout the course. The groups created bar soap made with used soap and cooking oil, as well as clothes, terrariums and even musical instruments from discarded materials.

Clarisse Rocha, who is also a teacher at the NUP in Chacrinha, a community in the western part of Rio de Janeiro, says that many start selling the items they learned to build in class.

“Several of them discovered themselves professionally, and I already have students who are making money with what they learned. It’s a teaching of entrepreneurship that happens in practice”, he says.

According to vice-governor Thiago Pampolha, city halls help recruit the program. He says there is a search for people who can represent leaders in their communities.

“Young people saw the community’s environmental expression, and, many times, they are even consulted for decision-making”, says Pampolha.

Larissa Eugenio, 25, participated in the first edition of Environment Jovem, but remains active in the program. At home, she began to supervise the disposal of the family’s garbage, and to separate the organic from the recyclables.

The student, who is studying geography at Uerj (State University of Rio de Janeiro), says that an important part was the exchange of experiences with other students.

“I try to encourage other people. Many young people weren’t in college, and didn’t even think about it. At my NUP, in Bangu [zona oeste do Rio], I always insisted that education is important. Today, I receive messages from young people from other groups telling me that they have gone on to university,” he says.

Thiago Pampolha says that the project arises to promote education for sustainability, which, according to him, does not yet have a federal standard.

Although established as law in 1999, the National Policy on Environmental Education faces embargoes in order to be applied, according to Leonardo Kaplan, professor at the education faculty of Uerj (State University of Rio de Janeiro).

“Discipline takes place on a one-off basis, on the initiative of a few professors, and happens in actions that, in general, do not continue. Hence the importance of public policies so that environmental education becomes a modality, and that the relationship between society and nature is established in a sustainable manner.”

According to the deputy governor, there is a dialogue between the secretary he leads and the Education department to evaluate a possible implementation of the discipline in state schools.