ENPACT
También en Ferrol.
The EU TEENS4Green project has been launched as an apparent response to the needs of the current situation. It offers an opportunity for teens to take ownership and become actors of change while proposing actions to help build a green recovery in their region and hence contribute to the good governance of the Cohesion policy. By allocating grants to teens to contribute to advancing the green transition in their regions, this project is a call to action to allow youth-led actions to grow locally and contribute to unleashing the potential of the young generation when it comes to their engagement and mobilisation in society.
ENPACT tries to educate and engage Ferrol´s locals across different age groups in a sustainable future. Activities target urgent environmental challenges like plastic pollution, offering possibilities for action. Ferrol’s youth is often neglected because it makes up a relatively small group of the area’s population and there aren’t that many possibilities to activate young people. For these reasons, we here at Xeracion developed a project like ENPACT, which anticipates including and educating Ferrol´s inhabitants about the transition to a sustainable future. In a time period of one year, the project team will implement multiple activities, with the objective of making the local people aware of the impact of climate change and the environmental changes in Ferrol.
Actions
Breakfast with candidates
At the beginning of April 2023, as the first action of ENPACT, we organised the “Breakfast with Candidates” to create a space for dialogue and exchange between young people and the political representatives who were competing for the mayor’s office in Ferrol. We invited the three main contenders: Ivan Rivas from BNG, Angel Mato from PSOE and Rey Varela from PP.
Each of them had a separate session with 10–20 young participants who asked them about their views on youth participation, youth perspectives and environmental challenges in the city. The format of each session was simple: The candidate had five minutes to present their program, followed by a discussion on the topics they had mentioned.
At the end, they had to answer questions from our question pool, which we collected beforehand from young people who could not attend the events but still wanted to have their voices heard. We felt that the meetings were a success in engaging more young people in the local elections and connecting them with the politicians. The youngsters had a chance to voice their concerns about the environment and other issues that matter to them in Ferrol, which is a city that faces many challenges and needs more participation from the youth.
The politicians appreciated the opportunity to hear from the youth and learn from their perspectives, which can be hard to reach otherwise in Ferrol.
Trash bin stickers
To develop the trash bin stickers, we conducted a collaborative initiative at a primary school in the community of Neda in the middle of may 2023, engaging with students aged 6 to 11. The school, situated amidst natural surroundings, provided an ideal setting for our outreach, as the children demonstrated a profound connection with nature. Their keen interest in environmental conservation was particularly noteworthy.
During our session, we addressed the issue of plastic pollution, with a specific focus on its impact on oceans. Employing an interactive approach, we facilitated a brief educational game where the children actively sorted various types of plastic into designated bins. This engaging activity served to underscore the significance of recycling in an enjoyable manner.
Moreover, we inspired the students to channel their creativity into envisioning designs for the forthcoming trash bin stickers, urging them to come up with their unique visual interpretations of proper waste separation and recycling practices.
Stickers:
Forest reconstruction
In the middle of February 2024 we invited 67 Kids aged from 3-5 years old to plant 120 trees at a green space around the local football station. We provided food, games to entertain the children, the trees as well as planting equipment. Because of a rapid change in weather, the kids were unable to take part in the actual tree planting. The trees had to be planted by the volunteers of Xeracion and local gardeners. One week later we teamed up with another local school to take part in their tree planting action in the surrounding hills of Ferrol. This let us plant the trees that were still left from the previous action.
Tree planting 1
Tree planting 2
Window exhibition Ferrol
At the end of March we held an art exhibition about different environmental challenges concerning Ferrol and its surrounding areas. The exhibition had 5 different artworks being presented. One Artwork was presented at the front window of the Xeracion office, Four further artworks at the Centro Civico de Canido in Ferrol. The Exhibition was opened as part of a Cultural Night and stood for two weeks.
TrashUre Hunt
At the end of March we teamed up with local schools to create a fun and educational day of beach cleaning.We invited 72 Kids to meet us at the local Beach called Doniños. The team of Xeracion was dressed up as pirates to make the day more interactive and fun for the kids. As part of our story line we informed them about the pollution of our oceans. Afterwards we made a competition for collecting “Mermaid’s Tears” (little plastic pallets spilled by a cargo ship in December 2023). The team which collected the most Tears won an old pirate Trashure.
