Solidarity Youth at the Eco Fair in Miriápolis Lía, Buenos Aires, Argentina

On 31st October, the Eco Fair celebrated its tenth edition in Mariápolis Lía, a small community located in O’Higgins, a town in the province of Buenos Aires. During this event, the 2025 Distinction Award was presented to secondary schools that were finalists, which seeks to highlight experiences of solidarity-based Comprehensive Environmental Education, under the slogan “Let’s learn together to care for our Common Home”.

This initiative brought together schools from across the province and region, and more than 20 projects were submitted and carefully assessed by experts. María Alejandra Herrero and Graciela del Campo, members of the CLAYSS team, participated in the jury and were part of the award’s organizing team.

On this occasion, we would like to highlight the winning project carried out by the Instituto Secundario Argentino Danés Alta Mira (ISADAM) in Necochea, entitled “Promotores ambientales [Environmental Promoters]”.

It is an interdisciplinary project developed by the three school levels that has gradually taken shape since 2020. It stems from the need to solve a real problem: the clean-up of a rubbish dump close to the school, which has become a park and is currently being maintained and reforested in collaboration with the school’s parents’ association. The environmental damage on the banks of the Quequén River, the destruction and death of flora in Miguel Lillo Park, and the lack of reforestation in public spaces were of great concern and motivated the project. The students, in coordination with different local organizations and institutions, produce seedlings of different tree species in their gardening and reforestation workshops to reforest public spaces. They also collaborate with those institutions and produce seedlings for consumption and decoration to distribute in the community.

Currently, 296 students from all three educational levels are participating in this educational solidarity-based initiative. There are 125 secondary-school students in 2nd and 3rd year who dedicate 12 hours per week to class and extracurricular activities concerning the project, while Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, Gardening, and Forestry subjects are included in the curriculum for all three levels.

During these activities, the students not only share the outcome of their work but also give meaning and value to their role as environmental mediators, committing themselves to local environmental issues and contributing to their resolution. The specific solidarity actions carried out by the students are: preparing seedlings at their school or at the Andrés retirement home, which they visit in groups every Wednesday; planting trees in public spaces and community-based and private organizations upon request; delivering seedlings to the community; and planting and maintaining the restored park close to their school.

In turn, community involvement is important, since the students coordinate their efforts with seven institutions: the community garden centre, the Amigos de la Ribera del Río Quequén Association, the CAAN (Animal Help Centre in Necochea City); Miguel Lillo Park; and the Andrés Ferreyra Community Library and Cultural Centre.

We celebrate the initiative, the response of the participating schools, and especially those who are developing this project today, which encourages young people’s commitment to caring for their environment.

More information about the Eco Fair [in Spanish]: https://www.diariodemocracia.com/vida/sociedad/329222-la-eco-feria-de-mariapolis-lia-celebro-su-10a-edic/