Help us empower Eco-Leaders in Paraguay!

All over the world, the next generation has been stepping up to humanity’s biggest challenge: Tackling the ongoing and increasingly threatening climate crisis. #FridaysForFuture and co. have started a global rethink, with the youngest generation leading us all by example.

At Para La Tierra, we want to bring this change to Paraguay. While the country is already starting to feel the impacts of climate change through extreme weather events, the poor education system has led to very limited climate literacy, reducing the number of potential climate activists. It leaves the new generation with little understanding of the conservation issues we’re facing in Paraguay and the immediate effects those have on their daily lives, nor of the potential they have to take action and drive change.

The shocking reality

Education in Paraguay has for a long time not been given the funding it deserves. Overcrowded classrooms, underqualified and underpaid teachers, and even language suppression are issues that continue to affect the education system.

The latest PISA study has revealed the shocking reality in Paraguay today: The vast majority of young Paraguayan learners are not achieving any of their study objectives, with almost 70% of students not reaching basic reading skills, over 75% not achieving the basic competencies in science, and over 90% not achieving the basic competencies in maths. The barriers to education appear to be synergistic in that those students who struggle to learn to read also underperform in maths and science which indicates that once a student begins to fall behind, the system fails to provide them with the support they need.

In 2020, UNICEF reported a net enrolment rate of 75% in primary schools and 64% in upper secondary schools, making Paraguay the Latin American country with the lowest enrolment rate. This situation was made even worse by the 18-month school closure caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Children in more rural, poorer areas are more affected than their urban counterparts, with 10-15% of these children completely illiterate.

While Paraguay’s general education ranked 136th out of 138 participating countries in the World Politics Review 2018, it gets even worse when we look at environmental teaching: Here, the quality of Paraguay’s maths and science education ranked 137th of 138 participating countries.

Environmental education is the most effective way to change people’s views on conservation and inspire them to protect their natural heritage. The lack of environmental education in the Paraguayan curriculum means that even the children living closest to natural areas have limited understanding of the value of nature and the scope of the climate crisis. Very detrimental in a country with such severe conservation issues to fix!

At Para La Tierra, we are dedicated to empowering Paraguay’s new generation to become Eco-Leaders.

Education is the most powerful weapon which we will use to change the world

Our Voces de la Naturaleza programme is designed to strengthen the environmental awareness of Paraguay’s new generation, teaching them about the beauty and importance of the wildlife and nature that surrounds them. We provide our club members with the soft skills they need to become Eco-Leaders, ready to drive change for an environmentally sustainable world.

From 2015 to 2020, our Voces de la Naturaleza programme was growing rapidly, from a single club to a network of 36 Eco-Clubs throughout 8 departments across Paraguay. They provided a safe space for more than a thousand children to engage their creativity and learn about the natural world. Our Eco-Clubs focused primarily on rural areas, where education opportunities are particularly scarce but that at the same time suffer most from the consequences of extreme weather events. Our eventual goal was (and is) to have the Voces de la Naturaleza programme included in the national curriculum.

All of this was possible with the help of the amazing Peace Corps volunteers, that brought the Voces de la Naturaleza programme to their communities. However, in 2020 the global pandemic forced the Peace Corps Volunteers to leave Paraguay and all of our Eco-Clubs had to shut down abruptly.

In 2021, our Education Director Jorge Ayala restarted our flagship Eco-Club in Pilar and trained two new Eco-Club facilitators from Pilar. A great first step but 3 clubs is still far from the 36 before COVID!

Now, after almost 3 years, the first 10 environmental Peace Corps Volunteers are finally back in Paraguay and we are more than excited to restart our Eco-Clubs together. With their help, we want to train more Paraguayan facilitators and spread the Voces de la Naturaleza message to even more children. Let’s bring a love of nature to the new generation, inspiring them to challenge local policies and tackle the global climate crisis!

What can I do?

To achieve this, we need YOUR help! Every penny will go a long way, enabling us to empower more and more children to become Eco-Leaders in their communities.

£4 will buy all basic material (such as crayons, scissors, and paper) for an entire Eco-Club.

£10 will buy board games and books related to nature and wildlife for an entire Eco-Club. Our kids love a round of wildlife jenga!

£25 will allow us to get educational posters for all of our Eco-Clubs, helping us illustrate our lessons.

£40 will cover all costs for scientific experiments such as our baking soda – dish soap volcano. This will help the children to better understand how complex processes in nature work.

£75 will buy snacks for an entire Eco-Club for one year. This might sound weird at first thought but remember that a lot of our Eco-Clubs take place in rural communities with limited food supplies, and as an African proverb says: A hungry belly has no ears.

£100 will cover the Voces de la Naturaleza starter kit for TWO entire Eco-Clubs! This kit includes a handbook, an information leaflet, paper, pencils, erasers, sharpeners, scissors, glue sticks, stickers, play-doh, and a ball.

£250 will buy interactive equipment for all of our restarting Eco-Clubs such as magnifying glasses, hula hoops and monkey costumes.

£500 will cover the fuel required to visit all of our re-starting Eco-Clubs three times next year for on-site training.

£2100 will cover all costs for running 10 Eco-Clubs for a whole year!!

A vast majority of these materials will be re-usable next year, building the foundation for a sustainable environmental education programme across Paraguay.