Week for Youth Rights in Argentina and Bolivia

In the framework of the Ibero-American Week celebrations, the Cooperation Fund for Technical Assistance Missions of the OAS Inter-American Program on Education for Democratic Values and Practices provided support to the work of the Week for Youth Rights in Argentina and Bolivia. The participating institutions in the cooperation mission were the SocialFoundation Uramanta and Youth Group Csi-miento of Bolivia, the SES Foundation, the Civil Popular Alternative Association, the Youth Group Murga Sol de America and the Roldan Youth Council of Argentina. The technical assistance activities took place in Argentina from April 14 to 18, 2012 and in Bolivia from April 26 to May 2, 2012.

The Bidirectional Cooperation Mission’s objective was to strengthen the work processes of the Week for Youth Rights in Argentina and Bolivia in the framework of the Ibero-American Week by recovering the practices of both and installing a working methodology that promotes political and social participation of young people living in poverty. 

“We have to let others know what it is like to be young” - young participant

The work began in Argentina with the specific aim of raising awareness of youth promoter groups to make a commitment to actively participate in a space that promotes a democratic culture, freedom of expression and cultural diversity. Several activities took place in Buenos Aires to exchange experiences with the various groups and organizations involved in the Week, and to learn about their local work, and its objectives and contributions to the Network for Youth Rights. Visits were also made to the cities of Rosario and Roldan, providing the possibility to learn about the work of Popular Alternative and Roldan Youth Council with the Youth Group Murga Sol de America. These activities contributed to adopting the perspective of the Week’s regional cooperation, understanding this week as a space of training, empowerment and advocacy among youth groups from different countries. 

Video: Youth Rights Week 2011 in Chapadmalal, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The mission has been extended to the city of Cochabamba, Bolivia, where both delegations strove to transform the Week in Bolivia into a social setting of advocacy, knowing about, and valuing the construction of local social ties achieved through the Bolivian experience. The objectives of the activities in this country were tied to strengthening the work of the Csi-miento Uramanta Social Foundation using the lessons learned and knowledge of the Argentinean team to improve the planning and implementation process of the Week for Youth Rights. It was also an opportunity to learn about the reality and cultural aspects of Bolivia’s youth. The Csi-miento youth group managed to implement the Week for Youth Rights taking into account the working guidelines outlined in the framework of the technical assistance given the established central themes: youth identity, gender and sexuality and public policies for youth.

Video: Csi-miento Group, Cochabamba, Bolivia

This experience of exchange and technical assistance serves as a model for strengthening regional and local work for each of the week initiatives, by installing a new cooperation model based on knowledge and learning. 

“At first we cared about being many; our goal was that: to be more. Now we want to be more active, more organized, and do things the right way. – Young from Csi-miento

Seeing the success of the activities, several institutions and companies were interested in carrying out this type of technical assistance and support the Week for Youth Rights in the coming years. 

Service Leaning at the University of Chile

In 2012, the city of Paine in Chile, the University of Chile and the Center for Latin American Service Learning and Solidarity (CLAYSS) of Argentina jointly executed a cooperation mission with support from the Horizontal Cooperation Fund of the Inter-American Program on Education for Democratic Values and Practices. The mission’s objective was to promote the exchange of experiences among participating institutions and to create an institutionalized body to train future professionals from the University of Chile and students from vulnerable locations in civic and democratic values, through a Citizenship Education Pillar. Thanks to this mission, directors, professors, academic collaborators and assistants from the University of Chile and municipal schools in Paine received capacity-building.

As a result of this experience of cooperation, in 2012 a group of activities of Service Learning were carried out in the framework of the course Introduction to Public Administration Studies that the School of Government and Public Administration of the University of Chile offers. This course is offered to new students in the field of Public Administration. Its main objectives is to teach students the basic concepts that define “state” and “government”, and to offer them a panoramic vision of the future activities that they will have to execute as public officials.

The experience with Service Learning was geared towards achieving two essential objectives: getting students to know and be familiarized with the institutions that are part of the Chilean Public Administration, having in mind the most relevant functions that the various public bodies carry out to achieve political and social development; and learn about, and ideally acquire, some attitudes that are essential in public service, such as responsibility, efficiency in resources management, capacity to coordinate tasks with other groups, capacity to adequately disseminate the objectives of their activities and to value citizenship participation in public issues and the search for alternatives to solve them.

On the ground, the mission was implemented with the educational institution “Escuela Alemania”, located in a rural area near Santiago (Paine), which assists minors from low income families and that are socially at risk. The main problem that these minors face is the lack of opportunities to overcome their condition of poverty and marginalization. The work was organized as follows: students prepared a own project of their service, which was also focused on directly helping to minors in the institution, upon submission and approval of higher authorities of the college. This meant that students had to visit the institution on a regular basis to elaborate the policy and later implement and evaluate it. Throughout the entire process students received support and help of the institution’s authorities, as well as of the task coordinating team of Service Learning of the university integrated two students in the course. 

The University of Chile views this cooperation experience as fundamental to strengthen the process of curriculum modernization with a strong citizenship component in teaching practices, and where students become the main actors. Foundations have also been laid for Service Learning to be institutionalized in the curriculum of participating academic institutions. In the city of Pain, there is installed capacity to implement learning and service. For CLAYSS, this has been an important opportunity to learn more directly from its leaders about the projects developed by the University of Chile, know the process of institutionalization that is initiating and follow the capacity building and promotion of the topic.

Even though a more exhaustive evaluation of this experience is pending, we can be certain that this was a valuable experience in terms of student learning, as well as the high value that the students themselves had about ​​this. Students recognized these activities as a more innovative, agile and dynamic teaching methodology that generates a special interest given the course’s activities. High class attendance and on the ground activities are an indicator of the aforementioned.

Links related to this project.

• News piece published by La Tercera - 05/29/2012: International Experts in Education bring to Chile an innovative teaching methodology (Expertos internacionales en educación traen a Chile innovadora metodología de enseñanza).
• International Meeting of Learning and Service organized by the University of Chile.  
•  Latin American Center for Service-Learning (CLAAYS)

Environmental Education and Water Management in Colombia

With the support of the Cooperation Fund for Technical Assistance Missions, the exchange of experiences and good practices between the Ministry of the Environmentand Sustainable Development of Colombia (MADS), the National Institute of WaterResources of Dominican Republic (INDRHI) and the Department ofSustainable Development of the OAS was made possible. The MADS, the environment authorities of Colombia and the youth leaders that are part of MAD’s environmental networks or programs were trained in citizenship awareness, education, use, and management and state of water resources by the Program UNESCO-WET of Water and Education Program for Latin America and the Caribbean, promoted on this occasion by the section of Integrated Water Resources Management of the OAS Department of Sustainable Development.
 

The technical assistance activities took place in the planned dates as a side event in the framework of the Seventh Inter-American Dialogue on Water Management (D7) organized in the city of Medellin, Colombia from November 13 to 19, 2011.

Technicians from the MADS received capacity-building in the methodology UNESCO-Wet Water and Education Programme for Latin American and the Caribbean for it to be used in their technical and community work processes in their respective area of action. The technical personnel acquired new tools and approaches for informal work in activities of Water Culture.

The young people were provided with training tools to work with in their communities through a set of dynamics, practical activities and original methodologies on the topic of water and the environment, thereby strengthening their actions in their surroundings and increasing the capacity to involver a greater number of young people that are engaged with the environment. The young people were trained and motivated to continue educating in topics related to Water Management, the Network of Water Resources and the National Network of Environment Youth in Colombia were strengthened and youth’s engagement with the environment and community work was increased.

“all people in the planet are obliged to adjust our activities to the limits and auto-regulatory capacity of nature. Each generation has the obligation and must assume a commitment in relation to the water they will drink, use and be enjoyed by future generations.”

 Seventh Inter-American Dialogue on Water Management (D7), Youth Working Table.

Those responsible for water management in the Hemisphere heard the voice of youth and gave them a space to actively participate. The young people issued a declaration that was submitted to the D7 organizers that included the commitments they established. They committed to the following:

• Work to transform Water Culture.
• Promote the efficient use of water.
• Raise awareness of Water Culture from an educational, ludic and participatory perspective. 
• Be watchmen and actors of change in the norms and policies of water heritage.
• Strengthen the social fabric of our communities through participation.
• Think, build and participate in spaces to exchange knowledge

To read the declaration made by the young people, click here (available only in Spanish).

The workshop’s great success made various institutions and companies interested in carrying out this type of training and support the process.