Solidarity youth in Tafalla, Spain

Students from the Marqués de la Real Defensa public school have been working on the “Africa, a Thousand Stories” project, comprising different activities that the students carry out to strengthen intercultural coexistence and fight against racism and xenophobia. Its objective is to learn about the continent’s potential through the history of its peoples and African and Afro-descendant representatives, with an optimistic vision, avoiding individual narratives and stereotypes.
In the framework of this general project, 6th-grade students and their teachers devised during 2021 and 2022 #MóvilesDeSangre, a campaign to raise awareness about coltan (a mineral used in the manufacture of mobile phones and laptops, among other everyday devices) and what its exploitation represents in Africa: guerrilla warfare for territories, deforestation and destruction of the flora and fauna of the Congolese jungle, above all. The boys and girls met a young victim of the Congolese guerrillas when exchanging videos and messages, and from there arose the concern and the need to act.
The students held a campaign to collect discarded mobile phones for proper recycling, carrying out a service-learning project with Tasubinsa, a vocational centre for people with intellectual disabilities.
In this way, they brought attention to a problem that affects the environment while raising awareness about the possibility of reusing phones to help prevent the escalation in the sale of new devices and the negative consequences that come with it.
This project recently won the Cooperación al desarrollo [Cooperation for Development] Award, granted by Educo, as part of the Spanish Service-Learning Awards 2023.

To learn more about the project [in Spanish]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=mTq34E_qxHM
News [in Spanish]: https://www.noticiasdenavarra.com/navarra/2023/11/07/colegio-publico-tafalla-premio-nacional-7481951.html