Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Environmental Education Travels by Truck

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

CARACAS, Apr 6 2009 (IPS) - A white truck carrying books, toys, videos and ecologists is promoting the organization of eco-brigades in Venezuela's primary schools, focusing on fourth, fifth and sixth grade students. The truck is visiting schools in the municipality of Vargas, on Venezuela's Caribbean shore.

“We are appealing to the sensitivity of the children for environmental issues, so that they carry out activities that improve their environment an raise awareness among adults in the communities in order to promote local sanitation initiatives,” the local official in charge of the effort, Pedro Calderón, told Tierramérica.

The truck, or “environmental mobile unit”, has brought a theater play, “Don Rata and the Garbage” to the schools. It is the work of the city's youth theater, and focuses on the health risks that can result from improper disposal of garbage.