Rio+20 - 3 facilitators spread your voice!

Video made by Cristina, Spansh facilitator at the European Conference and delegate at the Rio+20 Summit

Message to Young Participants at the European Conference « Let’s take care of the planet »

[English]

Together, we participated the European conference to engage ourselves in favor of sustainable development of our world.

Together, we want to empower people to take care of the planet.

Together, we spread our message throughout Europe and the other continents.

We reunited to continue a big project and we will pursue our role of eco-delegates until 7 billion people are involved in our work.

For, everyone can, to their own levels, in daily life, take care of the planet.

In acting with respect and optimism to develop an egalitarian world, united and healthy, we can truly transform our society. Let’s think and solidify our vision of the future!

NOW, our role, to us youth, is to spread our message to educate as many people of the beauty of nature, the preservation of resources, love and cooperation between people.

We were very happy to have met and interacted all human responsibilities. We have all felt an immense energy in our workships and our interactive discussions. We will use this shared energy to create changes in behavior in favor of intelligence of the heart.

This conference is a step closer to the transformation of society towards the common happiness of mankind. Further meetings will serve to build a sustainable world. Our contribution is in the process of awareness and acting out to improve society.

We have a great chance to participate in this project, we have a great chance to continue it!

We are the youth ; we have the energy and the potential to build a sustainable, solid, and ecological world. We will improve society, I am convinced !

Hope is our motivation, our motivation is hope.

Alexandre.

[French]

Ensemble, nous avons participé à la conférence européenne pour nous engager en faveur du Développement durable de notre monde.

Ensemble, nous souhaitons nous responsabiliser pour prendre soin de la planète.

Ensemble, nous diffuserons notre message en Europe et sur les autres continents.

Nous nous sommes réunis pour continuer un grand projet et nous poursuivrons notre rôle d’éco-délégué jusqu’à ce que les sept milliards d’humains se soient engagés dans notre action.

Car, chacun peut, à son niveau, au quotidien, prendre soin de la planète.

En agissant avec respect et optimisme pour développer un monde égalitaire, solidaire et sain, nous pouvons transformer véritablement notre société. Réfléchissons et concrétisons notre vision de l’avenir !

MAINTENANT, notre rôle, à nous les jeunes, est de diffuser notre message pour sensibiliser le plus grand nombre de personnes à la beauté de la nature, la préservation des ressources, à l’amour et la coopération entre les hommes.

Nous avons été très heureux de nous rencontrer et d’engager ensemble des responsabilités humaines. Nous avons tous ressenti une immense énergie dans nos ateliers et nos échanges interactifs. Nous utiliserons cette énergie partagée pour créer le changement des comportements en favorisant l’intelligence du cœur.

Cette conférence est un pas de plus pour la transformation de la société vers le bonheur commun de l’humanité. D’autres rencontres serviront à construire un monde durable. Notre contribution s’inscrit dans ce processus de prise de conscience et de passage à l’acte pour améliorer la société.

Nous avons eu une grande chance de participer à ce projet, nous avons une grande chance pour le continuer !

C’est nous les jeunes ; nous avons l’énergie et le potentiel pour bâtir un monde durable, solidaire et écologique, nous allons améliorer la société, j’en ai la conviction !

L’espoir est notre motivation, notre motivation est l’espoir.

Alexandre.

Global Warming

Global warming

If I was a bird
I would go up very high
I would go and see the stars
In my spaceship

Then I would see the Earth
Under a blanket of dust
Our Earth all damaged
That will explode soon

With all this pollution
We would deserve a good punishment
But it would be pointless
Because all this will not change tomorrow

The Greenhouse effect
All around the earth
Will not go away
If we keep polluting

TAKE ACTION and quickly
Because global warming
Will not wait
Even if we ask

Marc-Wildor Saint-Germain, Cayenne (French Guiana)

 Le réchauffement climatique

Si j'étais un oiseau
Je monterais très haut
j'irais voir les étoiles
Dans mon vaisseau spatial

Je verrais alors la Terre
Sous un manteau de poussière
Notre Terre toute abimée
Qui va bientôt exploser

Avec toute cette pollution
On mériterait une bonne punition
Mais ça ne servirait à rien
Vu que tout ça ne changera pas demain

Cet effet de serre
Tout autour de la terre
Ne pourra pas s'en aller
Si nous continuons de polluer

IL FAUT AGIR et vite
Car le réchauffement climatique
Ne se fera pas attendre
Même si on lui demande

Marc-Wildor Saint-Germain, Cayenne (Guyane Française)

 

Ma Terre...

Ma Terre je l'aime, elle me nourrit, Ma viande, mes légumes et mes fruits, sans pesticide, sans engrais, sans poison, une agriculture de raison. Pourtant les hommes qui nous nourrissent ne voient qu'argent, profits et bénéfices. Ils usent et abusent des ressources, polluent les prés, les forêts et les sources. Heureusement une partie d'entre eux est avisée et peu à peu fait partager ses connaissances, son savoir, ses techniques et ses sciences afin que très bientôt il n'y ait plus que des produits bio, respectant l' Homme et l'animal pour que notre Terre n'ait plus mal... Alors rêve ou réalité ? Notre destin est-il scellé ? Il faut lutter avec acharnement, Pour notre avenir, pour nos enfants.

I love my earth, she feeds me, My food, my vegetables and my fruits, without pesticides, fertilizers, no poison, a reasonable farming. Yet, men who feed us think about nothing but money, profits and benefits. They use and abuse of resources, pollute the meadows, forests and springs. Fortunately, a part of them is well-informed and little by little, they share knowledge, techniques and sciences so that very soon there will nothing else but organic food, respecting humankind and animals for our Earth doesn't suffer anymore ... So, dream or reality? Is our fate sealed? We must fight hard, for our future, for our children.

Marc-Wildor

French Delegate

Young Facilitators meeting Brazilians facilitators from Brasilia 2010 conference

Follow our adventure in Rio on the blog this week! 

Today we had a very interesting meeting between the three European facilitators Cristina, Aynur and Ivan – who are here to bring the European Youth voice, and Fernando and Mariana, who were facilitators during the 2010 Conference in Brasilia (first international Let’s Take Care of the Planet conference). Both Fernando and Mariana are very involved in youth movements, in particular in the REJUMA (important Youth network for Environment in Brazil) and REBEA (Network on Environmental Education). Their involvement and work is impressive.

We worked together on how we can articulate here in Rio the youth activities, and find the convergence points. The common objective is to focus on the notion of responsibility and commitment to both give a collective youth message and follow actively what will happen after Rio + 20. The 2010 Youth Charter, but also the Open Letter to the Decision-makers will be referent documents for that purpose. Making convergences between all the young people here will be all the more possible as Fernando is coordinating the ‘Youth Territory’ in the People’s Summit, and of course, we will help him!

Also we are preparing a workshop for next Saturday, based on the European Open Letter to Decision-makers, but this is another story… And we’ll come back with another article! 

Lydia Nicollet, co-coordinator of the European process 

Video Message Rio+20

Video performed by the European delegates in Brussels during the Youth European Conference Let's Take Care of the Planet - 14th to 16th of May 2012. Video message towards the Rio+20 Earth Summit.

The Flash Mob in front of the European Parliament

What a great experience for everyone, going outside and let the public know about our experience and commitments!

Last day - The story of creating a team: the facilitators

There are times in life when you do not get what you expected.... You get something better. This is the feeling I've had since the first day of the „Let’s take care of the planet” European Youth Conference. As a facilitator, you start with many fears and uncertainties. You do not know the participants, their expectations and how active they will be. You do not even know how effective you will be, because a facilitation process is always a two ways street: you and the participants. A thorough preparation and optimism can help you shape a positive image of the final results but reality will always add new colours to this image.

In terms of preparation, the team of facilitators benefited from a two days training course during which they got the chance to know each other, learn from the different experiences they each shared, meet experts in the field of sustainable development, try new teaching and learning methods and plan the activities of the conference. In terms of optimism, funny energizers, songs, smiles and hugs brought a naturally positive atmosphere and confidence. In just a few words, the training course for the facilitators was a story of creating a team. A team that gave their best to answer to the participants’ needs and achieve the planned objectives while encouraging everybody to have fun, to work with passion and enthusiasm. A team that went beyond their formal responsibilities, which ignored tiredness and which  never forgot to smile.

Now, on the last day of the conference we all agree that it was worth it. The young delegates shared the facilitators’ enthusiasm and positive attitude. They contributed actively to each session and amazed everybody with how competent, well informed and committed they were. They worked every day with the true belief that their opinions, ideas and actions can save the environment and that together they can take care of the planet.

A reflection of one of the participants that will stay with me for a long time is this: “You must be crazy in order to save the environment”. Indeed you must. You must be crazy enough to do things differently than the majority of people, crazy enough to start creating new paths instead of walking on the old ones and ultimately, crazy enough to believe that you have the power to change this world, you in your small town, in your school, in your home.

At the end of this long beautiful road on which we did not walk, but ran together these three days, my only hope is that we, as facilitators, were not the stones in the road that made the young delegates stumble, but the ones that were there to quietly show them the way. I hope they too got more than what they had expected.

Florina PAVEL

APSD-Agenda 21, Romania

Life at the conference

All the delegations arrived the 13^th of May between the morning and the evening.

My own delegation arrived much dispersed; half of the delegation (Catalonia and Madrid) arrived at 17:00 after walking from the metro station (20 minutes’ walk).  Then, people from Basque Country and Canary Islands arrived at the time we were presenting all the countries by their self, by 21:30. Finally, the girls from Galicia arrived by 1:00 the 14^th of May, because they had some problems with their train/plane/bus.

We are sleeping in 3 different rooms, 2 in the 4^th floor and 1 at the 3^rd floor (the girl’s one).

In our delegation, we have celebrated 2 persons’ birthdays, one was on the 14^th and the other was in the 15^th. It was a good coincidence that the 15^th we could go to Brussels and we celebrated both birthdays at the same time in the restaurant singing “Happy birthday”.

At the night, we spent our free time together in the boys’ room or in the girls’ room and we are talking about our things until we go to sleep like at 2 or 3 o’clock.

Before we start the working days, we presented each other and at dinner time we put some typical food of each country.

Group visits (15 May)

 On 15^th of the May the delegates were divided into 5 groups and every group had its own programme. Groups 1-3 visited European Parliament and then had debates with European deputies, group 4 visited Parlamentarium and had debates with Committee of the Regions administrative members. Group 5 was walking in the park and listening to the information about the project, which were organized here last time.
 We were in Group 3 and would like to say some words about our visit. In the European Parliament we had a small excursion, where we had watched a video about the Rome Treaty, heard about functions of European Commissions, European Parliament and Council of EU and had seen the hall, where the politicians discuss different topics.

 After this we went to the Committee of the Regions to debate with the deputies. Group 3 was talking with Philippe Lamberts, representative of Green Party, about his life, job, environmental problems in the world, responsibilities of adults and young and his opinion about “Youth European Conference: Let`s Take Care of the Planet”.

 It was our first time talking with a politician, and we really liked it.  He looks like a simple man and was very friendly to us. His speech was rather fast, but legible, and all of us understood everything. We were impressed by this meeting.

                                                                                                                           Liza and Dasha, Russia

Thematic workshops (14 May)

On the first day of our conference - May 14^th - we had our first thematic workshops. We were divided into six groups: consumption, natural resources, energy, solidarity, transport and biodiversity.

We all discussed about what responsibility is and then we talked about our topics. We decided what was the most important thing in our subjects. For example, in consumption group we came to the conclusion that every person can manage to do the 5R’s: Rethink, React, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

We created responsabilities for each topic.

Consumption: “We feel responsible for what we buy.”
Natural resources: “We feel responsible for raising people’s awareness in our community on the importance of Natural resources.”
Energy: “Raising people’s awareness about reducing exhausting and polluting energies and replacing them with renewable energies.”
Solidarity: “Create social connections between people of all ages in local and international communities.
Transport: “We want to reduce carbon emissions and air pollution by taking the public transport, walking, riding bikes or skateboards, consuming local products and encouraging people to do the same.”
Biodiversity: “We want to make people aware of the stakes of biodiversity and make them protect it from the danger of global warming, in order to preserve it for future generations.”

Biodiversity workshop

On 15^th May we continued on working in the same groups. We discussed about same questions with delegates from other groups and we were told to have few minutes writing on the subject and expressing our ideas about them. Thematic workshops were really interesting and inspiring.

     
I, Amy from Malta, was in the Consumption group. I enjoyed discussing my ideas with other delegates from other countries. I liked it because some things that you can do were really fascinating. I have to tell my friends in Malta about it, so together we can take an action.

I, Adelė from Lithuania, was in the Biodiversity group. I enjoyed our workshops very much, because that was experience that I have never had before. It was something new and very interesting for me. It inspired me to love our planet even more and take care of it as good, as I possibly can.

  Amy, Malta
Adelė, Lithuania

The River Of Hope (14 May)

The opening ceremony of the conference "Let's Take Care Of The Planet- Europe"

Hopeful young people at the formal start of this adventure which must lead to changes if we want a bright future here at our sensitive planet. The atmosphere summed of hope, and light were in everybody's eyes already when the very first word at this special conference was spoken. Now it really begins...

Reported by Sidsel Sofie Poulsen and Maria Louise Jensen, Denmark

Presentation of delegations (13 May 2012)

                                                           

After arriving to the hostel everyone should get to know each other; how would we cooperate without knowing each other? We had a delegation presentation ceremony. Everyone brought traditional things from their country. Some of us used their national costumes, candies, music, etc. Turkey, for example, brought Turkish delight which had different flavors like rosewater, lemon peel, etc. Sweden presented one of their most famous dollies; Pippi Longstocking (Pippi Långstrump, in Swedish) made by the writer Astrid Lindgren. Now I think you understand how different it was, from one corner of Europe to the other! This way we understood each other better, we got to know other cultures better. Our mission was not just to present our own country; we should also begin presenting next country with three words about the country and end our own presentation with three words about our, this was also a way to make the delegates closer. For instance, we used words like capital cities, famous people and famous places. 

 

In Turkey’s presentation, they wore their traditional clothes; boys wore fez, which Turks used to wear at the time of Ottoman Empire, and girls wore traditional dresses, which sultanas used to wear. They also distributed their special dessert, Turkish delight which had different flavors. Furthermore, they showed their flag and they distributed ‘evil eye’, which they believe that this bead protects them from bad events.

Sweden presented some Swedish traditions, Pippi Långstrump, the Maypole (a pole you are dancing around and singing happy songs in the end of June to celebrate the summer solstice) and of course, the pop band ABBA which won the European 1974 with the song Waterloo.

Denmark sang a children song about a snail and a ladybug, showed their red and white flag and they also taught us Danish which was hard!







Fredrik/Sweden
Ezgi/Turkey