Project Launch:

With support from World Connect’s Kids to Kids Program, a “Tierra es Tuya” club was established in the Tunel Conchano high school to meet weekly and learn about the value of recycling through creative activities and share what is learned with classmates. The club, led by a local Peace Corps Volunteer and the local high school, put the tools for protecting the environment into the hands of the students in Tunel Conchano by teaching them not only the importance of recycling, but how to do it and the fun side of recycling through different crafts. Instead of telling students not to throw their trash into the river, students were shown how to make a proper landfill and got their hands dirty in the process. Students made wallets from different materials, photo frames, pencil holders, and other crafts and the club also collected plastic recyclables in the high school and primary school. With the help of local engineers, kids in the high school planted trees in a plot of land by the school, where they also saw composting in action. After three months, there was a creative competition among all high school students to design an environmental mural and the best design was selected by the club and painted in the local health post to celebrate and share what the kids have learned with the community.