20th of September is World Children Day- so what better day than this to start my journey to realize the project Kids Are The Future?
What is Kids Are The Future all about?
The main issue is to raise awareness for the Atlantic Rainforest and its deforestation. In my opinion it is harder to change the habits of adults as they mostly have their routines and interests in topics, which are important for them already. So in order to change something in the future it would be important to focus on kids as they are the future J
The idea would be to go to Austrian primary schools and teach and explain the kids in a very playful and childoriented way how important the Atlantic Rainforest is and how necessary it is that we really take care of our planet. The goal is that by the end of the day the kids should come home to their parents and tell them how much fun they had and what they’ve all learned. Moreover that they not only get to know something about the Atlantic Rainforest it would be nice to have some sort of a personal attachment to this area by having a Brasilian primary school kid from Itacaré, a little town which is surrounded by the Atlantic Rainforest, as a pen-friend.
As the kids are not sharing the same language “writing” to each other could be a bit difficult 😉 therefore they will exchange drawings about their everyday life, the Atlantic Rainforest, family, school and so forth instead of letters.
So my task while I’m in Itacaré is to build up this cooperation between the Austrian schools and the Brasilian school, get to know the kids in Itacaré, do some drawings and handcrafts with them, play some games and tell them something about Austria, the Austrian kids and their everyday life and show them some pictures about it. The drawings I will then take home with me to hand them over to the Austrian kids. Each child will then get a picture of his or her Brasilian pen-friend and their drawings.
So on the 20th of September, 6 o’clock in the morning I started my journey from the airport in Munich. I had a short stopover in Lissboa and landed then after a “couple” of hours on the plane safe and sound in Salvador.
Ola and bom dia Brasil J
My boyfriend Robert, who will be my personal driver, translator, filmer, photographer and best man by my side picked me up from the airport. He has already been a couple of times in Brasil and flew a month earlier to Salvador- so he knew his way around which is quite handy as the traffic in Brasil is crazy. Brasil welcomed me as I’ve expected it: beautiful, coulourful, super friendly and outgoing, loud and chaotic but simply amazing.
As it is a 5 to 6 hours car-ride from Salvador to Itacaré we stayed one night in Salvador and continued our journey the next day early in the morning. Throughout the car ride we got amazing impressions of Brasil, the Bahia area, the Atlantic Rainforest and the diversity of the landscape. At late afternoon we arrived in Itacaré and after having a super delicious Brasilian dinner and some difficulties to find the Villa Tranquila, our stunning and awesome accommodation for the next two weeks. It is situated right in the dschungle. We are surrounded by all the different trees and plants of the Atlantic Rainforest and some little monkeys are our next-door-neighbors. Big thanks at this point to Sudden Rush for giving us the Villa Tranquila as a base and also to travel2change, Tobis Travel Solutions in Innsbruck and the Atlantic Rainforest Institution for supporting me and my project- without you it would not be possible! MUITO OBRIGADA.
