As the awards ceremony approaches, Youth Radio is profiling each of the six 2010 Brower Youth Award winners.  The Brower Youth Awards go to six outstanding environmental activists between the ages of 13 and 22.  The awards ceremony takes place in October in San Francisco. 

Ana Elisa Perez Quintero, 20, San Juan, PR
Promoting Environmental Education

Ana Elisa started GAIA (Grupos Ambientales Interdisciplinarios Aliados) as a youth-led non-profit organization dedicated to developing a culture of eco-citizenry through environmental groups in schools. These groups are based on an integrated curriculum that combines ecology, art, culture, and environmental activism. As part of this work, Ana Elisa has developed three urban gardens that serve as a hands-on laboratory for students and an incubator for new environmental campaigns.

When I was 15 years old, I was doing work with the Northeastern Ecological Corridor in Puerto Rico, and I got the inspiration for GAIA.  The 3,500 acre stretch of coastline was designated as a nature reserve, but our current governor eliminated the area as a reserve.  This was the only coastal area with no buildings in Puerto Rico.  

During this campaign, people from all over came to help out.  We decided that one thing we needed were stable alliances between organizations.  GAIA is an organization of organizations.  One main theme that arose as well, was the idea of working with kids. The school program has evolved significantly.  

GAIA has four main program areas. The first is our Education Program. The informal education program involves helping schools set up vegetable gardens, giving talks about the Corridor region, or whatever the schools ask for.  The formal education program involves a problem-based curriculum centered around the real environmental problems that are pertinent to the island.

The second is our Research Program, which involves assessing what is needed according to the different communities.

Then there’s our Media Program. We actually help students and community members do digital storytelling. We help them produce videos and we have collaborations with radio stations as well. [See GAIA video channel below.]

Finally, there is our Applications Program. This part includes making the vegetable gardens, taking field trips to the Corridor, and even recycling programs.

Our curriculum is interdisciplinary.  We always want to integrate these four themes into everything we do: culture, environmentalism (advocacy and citizen action), ecology (biology, species inventory), and art.

We all live in a diverse ecosystem. We’ve been noticing that the more people understand their ecosystem, the more they understand the people in their communities.  

The goal of the vegetable gardens that we set up in deteriorated urban areas is to create more resilient communities.  It’s not only about producing food, but actually creating community around food.  It also serves as a lab, so that kids know more about their environment.

We are not going to save anything, just make people aware of the ethical and environmental decisions they make.  

People are not resistant - they are willing.  It’s about empowering people and giving them the tools.  People know that our food is imported, that we need more trees, and that we need to recycle.  But they don’t know what to do about it.  

Now we have a program called Community Lobbyists.  In Puerto Rico everyone comes out to vote, but they do not participate in any other form of politics.  We are encouraging people to speak up and go talk to their legislators.  Most speak out about environmental concerns.  Lots of people joined us to lobby for the Northeastern Ecological Corridor.  The best part was that people participated in the process.  

Recently, the government wanted to build a freeway through the Karso mountain region.  The same group of lobbyists was activated and they managed to stop the freeway from being built.  

This is from GAIA's video channel. Ana Elisa also provided these resources where you can find out more about her project.

These are two blogs that gather films the kids have been doing:

http://cartografias-citadinas.blogspot.com/

http://rio-suena.blogspot.com/

Also three songs about different environmental issues produced by the kids participating in the GAIA Non-Formal Education Program:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ciudadesgaia#p/c/4351496D3EBFD945/0/tUfQgrFgYDA
http://www.muziboo.com/GruposGAIA/music/

This is blog is about the vegetable gardens: http://huertonuestro.blogspot.com/