Agendas discussed at the G20 Brasil such as sustainability, fighting inequalities, hunger, and poverty are in the daily lives of schools in Complexo da Maré in Rio de Janeiro. Pedagogical debates and activities stimulate the school community to reflect on global challenges.
While Rio de Janeiro is in maximum countdown mode for the start of the G20 summit, which will bring representatives of the world's 19 largest economies to the city on November 18 and 19, in three municipal schools in Maré, the forum's slogan - "Building a Just World and a Sustainable Planet" - has stopped being something distant and has become a part of the daily lives of children and teenagers
The Technological Experimental Gymnasium (Ginásio Experimental Tecnológico - GET) from the Rio 2016 Olympics, the Monteiro Lobato Municipal Nursery, and the Éder Francis Carbonera Olympic Medalist Child Development Center (CDC) brought important G20 discussions into classrooms, with sustainable practices spreading and engaging student groups. Themes that can sound challenging even for adults, such as energy transition, sustainable development, fighting hunger, poverty, and inequality, have become pedagogical actions and are now in the daily lives of students and their families.
CDC Éder Francis Carbonera
In the Child Development Center (CDC) on Campus Maré II, in Salsa and Merengue, the G20 brought more excitement to work on the environment.
"The G20 cannot be something far from here. It is necessary to address our reality, tackling not only wildfires but also the issue of waste. Discuss nature for everyone, with improvements not only in the long term but something that needs to start now," says Débora Esteves, deputy principal.
The involvement there is so strong that, in November, the school's newspaper project, available as a mural and online version, inspired by Maré de Notícias, will be dedicated to the theme of the G20. The young reporters are already preparing everything, says the deputy principal.
Before that, anyone walking through the CDC would see various children's artworks about nature scattered along the corridors, including paper butterflies adorning a room's door. Each class was baptized with an animal. The most exciting are the 4- and 5-year-olds in Pre-1 and Pre-2, the Butterfly and Hummingbird classes, respectively. "It saddens me when people throw garbage behind the school, into the water (Guanabara Bay)," says Emanuele Souza, age 5. One initiative was the creation of a butterfly house with caterpillars that were fed with passion fruit leaves. When they became butterflies, the students released them into nature.
Indeed, the environment has become a large open-air classroom. The students have already participated in a picnic at the Ecological Park and planted a bougainvillea (spring plant) there. Four years ago, the children planted an ipê tree at the back of the school, and since then, two banana trees, a boldo plant, and three orange trees have also appeared. Another action that draws attention is the transformation of used tires into colorful fences for plants. "We listen to children, and that's how the ideas they bring to us are born," adds Valmira Lúcio, Pre-2 teacher.
To encourage student participation, teachers explained what the G20 will be. One of the tasks related to the major gathering of heads of state in Rio was creating posters asking people not to throw trash around the school, raising awareness among the community. "It´s very annoying when people burn garbage, the air is full of smoke. I don't like fire in nature because it lets the animals die," says Manuele Gomes, 6-year-old.
The school's symbol is the sunflower, with the gentle motto: "Be sunflowers of your own gardens." "We work with children directly in the environment, teaching them how to germinate and plant sunflowers. We make a home garden, which the students water and take care of. This contact will resonate with the family which will be more attentive to taking care of each space in the community", recalls Débora.
Keeping up with the topic, Pietro Silva, 4, already knows what he would say to the G20 Summit. "The place of the trash is in the trash, nature is beautiful," he summarizes.
Monteiro Lobato Nursery
Located in the heart of Baixa do Sapateiro, Monteiro Lobato Nursery is very aware of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the 2030 Agenda, which include among others, gender equality, responsible consumption and production, peace, and justice. The principal Ana Maria Ignacio and deputy principal Débora Cristina Ruivo work to make the nursery a place that offers students, from a very young age, the chance to build a better and more sustainable future.
The activities in the space that daily hosts 140 children, aged 2 to 6, have as one of their main focuses recycling through the reuse of materials for educational activities and waste separation. There are a series of posters and toys created by the students. Among them are dolls made of paper boxes, named Lupita Bonita and Lucas Docinho.
"They are more successful than any Barbie," principal Ana Maria laughs, describing how one student became so attached to Lupita that she asked to take her home to play.
The activities in the space that daily hosts 140 children, aged 2 to 6, have as one of their main focuses recycling through the reuse of materials for educational activities and waste separation. There are a series of posters and toys created by the students. Among them are dolls made of paper boxes, named Lupita Bonita and Lucas Docinho.
At Monteiro Lobato Nursery, the children have activities in the garden, frequent contact with nature in the backyard, where there are five fruit trees, fruit harvesting, encouragement of a more natural diet with an emphasis on fruits and vegetables, promotion of sports, especially running, on a mini track painted in the inner courtyard, and even an art gallery, where works created by the children with recycled materials are displayed. And to provide better working conditions for the teachers, there is a break room where they can have tea to relax.
Specialist visits are also frequent to delve into issues that are part of the nursery's daily routine. Recently, there was a lesson for the teachers on anti-racist education with black culture researcher Pâmela Carvalho, and a conversation with a representative from the Augusto Boal Health Clinic to discuss nutrition.
The partnership with the "Articulação com as Escolas", project from Redes da Maré, has also offered workshops on Territory, Memory, and Culture for the professionals at Monteiro Lobato, and activities on the Urban and Socio-environmental Rights Axis are already scheduled for 2025 with children and teachers. Later this year, parents and guardians will meet with nutritionist Verônica Pinheiro from "Maré de Sabores buffet" to discuss healthy eating.
The concern with the quality of the food is reinforced daily by the cafeteria staff Edna da Silva and Estela de Oliveira. "Some children like to leave vegetables aside, but here we try to encourage natural food. Now they even ask for more carrots," she says.
Principal Ana Maria recognizes that the G20 motto boosted and brought more life to the nursery projects. "Our actions have always been designed for the children's future, but the G20 came to leverage that. How do we fight for a world with less waste? How do we avoid consumerism from an early age? Those ideas are the ones that move us here," says the principal.
The partnership and support of those responsible is great, as confirmed by Ana Paula Araújo dos Santos, mother of the 2-year-old student Ana Lara: "It is a school that encourages children to think about recycling, to do sports, to take care of nature, to respect the environment from an early age. It's no coincidence that my daughter asks to go to daycare even on days when there are no classes. It is gratifying to see so much learning," adds Ana Paula.
GET from Rio 2016 Olympics
At Nova Holanda School, the topic of the G20, with its social, economic, and political implications, has become so significant that it is now the subject of an elective journalism course, renamed Journalism and the Environment.
In recent months, a class of 20 adolescents, guided by Portuguese teacher Viviane Couto da Silva, has been diving deeply into environmental issues through workshops in partnership with the Ecogerações project, a collective of young communicators from Maré focused on climate and environmental justice.
In the class that Maré de Notícias attended, the communicator Kaya Mendes challenged the students to reflect on environmental racism in the favela while also presenting the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations for the 2030 Agenda. The class was divided into groups to produce posters defending themes such as ending poverty, sustainable economic growth, and reducing inequality.
"The purpose of these classes is to capture preservation messages. In a territory like Maré, talking about preservation is talking about both the context and the environment in which we are inserted," says Kaya, whose initiative is part of LabMaré, the Urban and Socio-environmental Rights Axis of Redes da Maré, to support development projects in the territory.
"The purpose of these classes is to capture preservation messages. In a territory like Maré, talking about preservation is talking about both the context and the environment in which we are inserted," says Kaya, whose initiative is part of LabMaré, the Urban and Socio-environmental Rights Axis of Redes da Maré, to support development projects in the territory.
The elective subject of environmental journalism has a page on Instagram , where students and workshop guests present highly engaged classroom production. "Our focus is to transform all the content of the classes into messages about preserving the environment that can be disseminated to other students in the school so that everyone can understand the climate urgency. Actions like composting and recycling can be multiplied both inside and outside the school," explains the teacher Viviane.
In one of the Instagram videos, two students from the project, Maria Eduarda Almeida, 13, and Alice Diniz, 15, share the experience of reporters at the opening of Favela 20 (F20), the social branch of the G20, which took place in the Vidigal favela, in the South Zone of Rio, in July. They both left the experience exultant. "We want to warn other students like us that it is time to think about all the trash that is so close to our homes," they say in chorus.
Article produced by the Maré de Notícias/F20 team in a content partnership with the Communication team of G20 Brazil. Text: Adriana Pavlova and Hélio Euclides
