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The Latin American Center for Service-Learning (CLAYSS) supports schools with a long-standing record of caring for the planet as part of its Service-Learning and Integral Ecology Programme (https://www.clayss.org/programas/ecologia-integral/). Among the actions of this programme, CLAYSS visited No. 25 School “Delia Medici de Chayep,” located in Villa Futalaufquen, in Chubut province, Argentina. The students of this school are developing the SL project “Vivero Niños del Lago [Children of the Lake Greenhouse],”(https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057487419589) which started in 2006 as a proactive response to the fires that had devastated the mountain in the school’s surroundings. Their objective was to collect seeds of native species of the National Park, grow and care for them, and later plant them in the park soil when they had the appropriate size.
The meeting between CLAYSS technical staff and the community of Villa Futalaufquen had different stages. The first day was intense; after a long journey, the school teachers welcomed the team, and representatives of the Chubut Ministry of Education, the National Gendarmerie, the National Parks agency and the community’s health department joined the meeting. They shared a group work activity, allowing all participants to suggest what they thought would contribute to the project. As part of the care for the “common home”, they also discussed new problems to solve together, taking advantage of synergies. On the second day, there were many curriculum activities at various school levels related to the project. Kindergarten children observed the characteristics of a Maitén leaf under a microscope and explained how to take care of the seedlings they have in their classroom. The students from the last grades of primary school spent time preparing the soil for future seeds: they shovelled soil and compost, mixed them in the right proportions and moved them to the area for sowing. In the afternoon, CLAYSS visited the vegetable garden, where upper-year secondary students guided them through the different areas and explained how they reproduce forest-like conditions to germinate the seeds and grow the seedlings until it was time to plant them in the forest.
The third day began with the preparation of food to take on the trip to the forest.
In the classroom, the gardening teacher checked with the students some concepts to consider during the day. Later, the children went to the greenhouse, where they got the backpacks donated by the National Parks to transport the seedlings. It is worth noting that these backpacks are made from recycled silo bag waste material. They loaded them with cypress trees and mayten seedlings, and they began their walk along the trail that National Parks cleaned and widened to improve access to the area, and which they named “Sendero Niños del Lago [Children of the Lake Trail]” in homage to the work done by these children. On their way up, the group stopped in a clearing in the forest for lunch after walking for about an hour. Naturally, everyone was careful not to leave any food or rubbish behind. The time for replanting had come: they explained that anyone can recognise the trees the children have planted because they always plant them within two steps from each other, in all possible directions. With a clear understanding of their job, the children started digging holes and planting the seedlings. The discarded plastic pots went into a shared bag. The specimens in the area, the first trees they planted, were already of a considerable size: some were over 1.70 metres tall! Since the forest is now regenerating per se, they are considering choosing another area for further reforestation. With the lake as background, once the reforestation was over, students and teachers had a reflection activity where the children who were planting for the first time told how they had lived the experience.
Next, it was time to descend, but it wasn’t all over yet. Before leaving the forest, a huge surprise awaited the visitors. They finally learnt about the “treasure” one of the teachers had told them about that morning. Only once were they able to get larch seeds to germinate, and in the greenhouse, they have a limited number of seedlings of this species, which they only replant on special occasions; every year, on trips with special guests, the school graduates plant one to remember deceased students or teachers. This time, they chose to do it with CLAYSS, so a larch tree was planted to honour all those who carry out service-learning experiences “because they work for a better world”, as those present affirmed.
In the Park, there is also a thousand-year-old larch tree, which is the community’s pride and joy; planting a tree that will live for more than a thousand years is undoubtedly a legacy for many generations, a seed that transcends the personal and individual: it is the collective construction and creation, hand in hand with nature; it is service-learning put into practice by those students and teachers who do their bit to the care for the planet daily.
