Project Launch:

Brigada Verde youth groups are a Peace Corps-based initiative striving to educate youth about environmental issues affecting their countries. In September 2010, a Brigada Verde group was established in the small rural community of Las Auyamas in the Dominican Republic to provide an opportunity for kids to learn about environmental issues affecting the health of their local environment. Art activities were incorporated into weekly lessons to help kids understand the themes being taught through a different lens. The classes allowed kids of all ages to get involved in a fun learning style that also supported creative expression. The environmental issues in the community that the group addressed included contamination of local drinking water sources and trash burning practices that contaminate the air of the community. The group worked with kids to paint educational messages about the environment on new trash cans. The group also established a community vegetable garden to be used as an example for explaining the benefits of healthy and organic food production. Adult leadership on the environment in this part of the country is limited, so by empowering the younger generation to take charge of the environmental health of their river and air, progress has been made very rapidly.