ABOUT THE PROJECT

The project "Greening the present, saving the future" is a Volunteering Teams in High Priority Areas coordinated by Associazione InformaGiovani and funded by the European Union within the framework of the European Solidarity Corps programme

The project consisted in the organization of one leader training in spring 2022 and 6 volunteering team activities carried out in summer 2022 in three different locations in Sicily (Italy): the Natural Reserve "RNO Isola delle Femmine", the Natural Reserve "RNO Biviere di Gela" and the Geosite Municipality of Geraci Siculo

The volunteering activities involved 6 accompanying persons and 71 local and international volunteers, aged between 18 and 30, from various European countries (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Ukraine, some of them with nationalities such as Argentinian, Colombian, Ethiopian, Malagasi, Malian, Senegalese, Venezuelan, Vietnamese, living in the European Union)

The implementation of the activities involved the active collaboration of local organisations and authorities, in particular the LIPU (Lega Italiana per la protezione degli uccelli), the non-profit body responsible for the management of the Oriented Nature Reserves of Isola delle Femmine and Biviere di Gela, and the Municipality of Geraci Siculo Also it is worth to mention the collaboration with the Office of Juvenile Justice and a refugee centre to support participation of disadvantaged young people

All the activities were designed to combine concrete interventions, such as planting, cleaning, restoring, and initiatives to raise awareness about the man-made impact on the environment and climate change. Each activity was prepared with a focus on a specific theme linked to the reality and the main issues affecting the territory hosting the volunteering activities.

More precisely, the dangerous effects of the intensive agriculture and its massive use of plastics (Biviere di Gela), the impact of marine litter, plastic and incorrect waste management on the seas (Isola delle Femmine), recycling and reduction of plastic consumption and decomposition time (Geraci Siculo).

To support the learning dimension, each activity had some common sessions in the agenda, such as onarrival training, mid-term and final evaluation, non-formal workshop to