November 17, 2017

Celebrating Rainforest Education

This month, on International Student’s Day, we’re celebrating the bright and brilliant scholars of the Asháninka partnership.

Education is crucial to all children and young people, wherever they live. Yet, for children living in remote villages in the Peruvian Amazon, it’s often too far and expensive to travel to the nearest secondary school.

By developing local livelihoods, our mission here at Cool Earth is to end the cycle of deforestation entrenching villages into further poverty. That’s why access to broader career opportunities is a priority for our community partners. We believe that if young people are clued up and in control of their careers and finances, they are more confident and resilient to loggers.

Cool Earth’s partners have put education at the top of the curriculum.

This month, Danny and Necker, two high school graduates from the Asháninka Partnership, have been awarded national scholarships for being top in their class.

First stop, Lima tourism college, where Danny and Necker will embark on an exciting new chapter in their education, with formal training. This is a great example of the Peruvian government helping students in rural communities reach further education.

Cool Earth is helping students improve their chances of benefitting from government-run schemes like this, by strengthening the ability for families to get their children to school in the first place. In the past, our community partners have chosen to spend Cool Earth funds on improving their village school facilities, buying school uniforms, paying for school transport and running nutrition projects to improve children’s health. Through this support, we are helping students reach the education they need to make the most of scholarships available.

And that’s not all the good news. In the Asháninka, the community association decided to support five students last year with bursaries to attend teacher training.

We’re proud to support these students in graduating to the next step of their learning. With this education, the next generation of rainforest custodians can bring new skills and knowledge to the community to help keep trees standing.