Development & Aid, Environment, Tierramerica - Ecobrief

Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Virtual Path to Nature

BUENOS AIRES, Dec 5 2005 (IPS) - An Internet site based in Argentina is promoting environmental education among Latin American children and adolescents.

“If the environment didn't exist, then we wouldn't either,” says Fátima, a Bolivian girl. “What would happen if the ozone hole grows?” wonders Luciana, from Argentina. “We have to take care of the environment so that the world doesn't end and we can go on living,” warns Jesús, a Nicaraguan boy.

These youths concerned about the environment had the opportunity to communicate with each other, lay out their doubts, make criticisms, propose solutions and even play on the web site EcoPibes, developed in Argentina six years ago. The name of the Internet site comes from “pibe”, which in Argentina means “kid”.

This environmental education project is aimed at the Spanish-speaking younger generations and is based on using computers and telecommunications. “We don't go to the classroom, we do it over the Internet,” Cecilia Iglesias, director of the web site, told Tierramérica. She was recognized in 2004 as Outstanding Argentine Youth in environmental leadership by the non-governmental International Youth Foundation.

EcoPibes was chosen this year for a presentation in Washington at the conference Youth Social Technopreneurship: Taking it Global, organized by the World Bank, and others, along with three other projects in China, India and Sierra Leone that apply information and communication technologies for development and which involve youth. To learn more about the project, connect yourself to: www.ecopibes.com