OUR STORY
OUR STORY
The Bahia Eco-Club was sprouted in 2008 as a branch of the non-profit Global Student Embassy, an organization that worked for 10 years in 4 countries to encourage youth empowerment, leadership, and environmental stewardship amongst its 15,000 engaged students. However, in November of 2018, GSE was forced to unexpectedly declare bankruptcy, effectively dissolving the organization and abandoning both the local eco-club school programs and intercultural exchange trips.
Following this difficult dissolution, the program was temporarily picked up the non-profit Global Glimpse until April 2019 when they decided that the program did not fit into their long-term plan. Following the loss of this NGO backing, our main high-school partner made the decision to discontinue our programs within the high school, causing us to lose our toolshed, nursery and garden that had been constructed collaboratively by local and foreign students over the past 10 years. However, despite these harsh realities, the mission of the program continues to thrive and evolve through the Bahia Eco-Club and their team of local youth leaders that are committed to continue to serve their community through environmental and outdoor education.
OUR PAST WORK
In Bahia, we had been actively working with three different schools, and in various local neighborhoods, with programs designed to give students the tools, skills, knowledge and confidence to think critically about how we interact with our natural environment, and to proactively make tangible change.
15,000 engaged students.
70,000 trees planted.
100 beach cleanups.
The public high school Fanny de Baird was GSE’s first project location in South America which began in 2008. GSE worked with students to create a school garden and nursery to produce endemic trees to later be reforested. The Eco-club consisted of 25 core student volunteers, who met twice weekly to maintain their organic garden, tree production, compost system, and other projects, campaigns and events.
Unidad Educativa
Fanny De Baird
Beginning in 2015, GSE worked with 15 volunteers weekly to create and maintain a nursery for tropical dry forest tree production, using the majority to create safe and cool green spaces around their school following the aftermath of the 2016 earthquake. Students also worked in smaller projects such as trash collection to keep the area near to the highway clean, and the creation of bamboo benches for the club.
Unidad Educativa
Diana Esther Guerrero Vargas
In 2017 GSE began to work with Sathya Sai, an elementary and middle school with a curriculum based in environmentalism and humanities. At Sathya Sai, the Eco-club worked to construct a nursery and maintain a beautiful garden of flowers and ornamental plants. Our program worked with 23 primary school students, supporting the schools curriculum while planting both endemic tropical dry forest and fruit trees for their greenhouse.
Escuela De Educación Básica
Sathya Sai
Partner Communities
Following the earthquake of 2016, many communities were heavily impacted, causing families to lose homes and belongings. Starting with a student’s own community, our program began to work in various neighborhoods of need to plant trees, paint murals, and create other ecological and artistic projects alongside community members to reintroduce purpose and place to these areas. Since then, we had worked with local and exchange students in two governmentally contracted housing projects, two local neighborhoods, and a local pre-school center to follow this mission.
