PORTUGAL

Portuguese Young Reporters for the Environment (YRE) attended a six-day Mission at ‘Rock in Rio Lisboa 2016’ to investigate the sustainability measures and concerns of this music festival that involves 80.000 people per day on average.

The festival has, since 2013, been recognised as a sustainable event in accordance with ISO 20121. It aims to be a carbon neutral event and supports the social project ‘Amazonia Live’, also investigated by YRE students in Portugal.

Throughout the festival, two groups of twelve YRE students from different schools all over Portugal conducted their journalistic research work through interviews, surveys and photographs, and later produced a set of 46 reports which can be found here or on the Facebook page created for this activity.

The reports address themes related to mobility, waste, donation of materials, energy efficiency, smart cities, as well as relating to the organisation's vision, sustainability and its impact on the surrounding community.

A Litter Less Campaign event also took place during the festival and was organised by ABAE (FEE’s member in Portugal) with the participation of friends of YRE. Litter Less campaigners collected 15 1L bottles of cigarette butts, and took pictures with messages about sustainable behavior to highlight and promote their actions. Photos can be found on the campaign’s Facebook page.

During the mission the youth stayed at a YRE school, Colegio Valsassina,  located 500m from the festival area. Journalistic investigation took place between 16:00 and 21:00, and the reports were prepared between 9:00 and 14:00 at the the mission press centre in a designated area inside the school.

YRE in RIR is the fourth edition of the activity; the partnership with Rock in Rio has been major motivation for the YRE network and also an excellent reward for the most committed YRE students.

SLOVAKIA

Young Reporters participating in the Litter Less Campaign in Slovakia studied the impact of an official campaign of the Ministry of Environment, Vyčistime si Slovensko (Let´s Clean Slovakia), which aimed at the elimination of illegal dumping sites. The task was assigned at the introductory Litter Less seminar on 4 November, and the deadline was 15 December. So far, Young Reporters from 7 schools delivered reportages about successes or failures of the campaign.

In the process of investigation, YRs met with people in charge from municipalities, evaluated the results of the project and surveyed the citizens on their satisfaction. Students conducted research on the reasons for the creation of the dumping site, and what can be done so that it is not re-created in the future.

Thanks to the provided methodology, Young Reporters managed to deliver good articles illustrated by pictures "before" (with litter) and "after" (illegal dumping site cleaned). They gained useful skills on journalistic writing (for the reporters from new schools it was the first experience of this kind), and got acquainted with local waste problems. In this way, they are ready to start working on and improving their entries for the YRE competition.

ISRAEL

5 students from Gedera were able to join a real time marine research on a research vessel and document it for the YRE LL program! The student sailed on the vessel with a professor and 3 PHD student and were exposed to a real environmental marine work. They have filmed, took pictures and interview all participates, including the vessel captain. We can not wait for their journalistic work to submit.   

ROMANIA

YRE atthe National College “Eudoxiu Hurmuzachi” from Radauti, Romania

On October 2015, The National College “Eudoxiu Hurmuzachi” from Radauti, Romania, organized a seminar in which they disseminated the YREProgramme and the Litter Less Campaign in their community, launching the new edition for this school year. At this meeting, over 100 participants were present: pupils, teachers and parents. Important issues of this seminar were transmitted at the local TV station. Teachers and pupils presented their projects that were rewarded in 2015. 

Pupils participated in every Litter Less campaign edition and obtained multiple awards every year.

Also, for the year 2016, they proposed to combine the programmes and projects that they are running, so that the Litter Less Campaign might obtain even a better success. They wish to collaborate with another high school from another participating country.

Pupils made posters that were displayed in the school's hall and in the meeting room, so their colleagues might become interestedin environmental problems. Guests received fliers with information about the YRE Programme and the Litter Less Campaign. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC8WAjVIo54&feature=youtu.be

KAZAKHSTAN

What are the rules on writing a good article? How do you choose a hot topic to report on? Journalist Maxim Baluev of local newspaper Prestige answered these and many other questions on 21st December as part of a masterclass on the ‘Secrets of Successful Interviewing’. The class was organized for students at L.N. Tolstoy Secondary School №4 in the town of Stepnogorsk participating in the YRE programme and Litter Less Campaign.

At the invitation of the project’s school coordinators, Maxim Baluev led an interesting literacy project on journalism for the participants. The masterclass was not restricted to theory. Maxim also gave the event participants the opportunity to act as real journalists, having come up with a list of practical tasks (training). In these tasks the ‘young reporters’ composed intriguing headlines and lead paragraphs, annotated speeches and presented dramatization.

The open mike session, during which the participants were able to ask the journalist questions related to their own work, was particularly popular. From the reaction in the auditorium it was clear that the journalistic profession raises many questions and the participants were curious to find out more about those working in the industry.

 Author: Aipkhan Nurlanov, L.N. Tolstoy Secondary School №4, Stepnogorsk

PORTUGAL

The school Escols Secundária Fernando Caldeira a post on it's blog in which they describe their experience in the workshop:

http://ecofcaldeira.blogspot.pt/2016/01/litter-less-campaign-2016.html

The school Escola Secundária de Vila Real de Santo António created this news in its website regarding the participation of the school in the Litter Less Campaign and workshop:

http://www.aevrsa.com/index.php?pag=noticias&noticias=Campanha%20Litter%20Less%202016

FRANCE

We organised teacher training attended by 21 teachers and 9 students on the 5th of November. 

During the first part of the training, we presented what is expected from the programme and how to implement different actions in schools and classes in particular, as part of the curriculum. Furthermore, various reportages from the last year of the campaign were analysed in order to give a better idea to the attendees about the project, its results and impact.

The second part was dedicated to the journalistic approach of the campaign. Journalist Jessica Jeffries Britten, who specialises in Youth, shared her experience and delivered tips on how to deliver good reportage. 

GERMANY

Students from the Dathe-School in Berlin-Friedrichshain participated in a YRE-Photo-Workshop with our professional photograper Sandra Wildemann. They learned how to take a good picture for the Litter Less Campaign. The results will be soon available soon on our website.

CANADA

Our special guests for our winners’ workshop in May are Alex and Tyler Mifflin—the award-winning hosts and creators of the acclaimed documentary eco-adventure television series The Water Brothers.  Over the past six years, Alex and Tyler have travelled around the globe from the highest peak in Africa to the world’s mightiest rivers, deserts, and to the bottom of the ocean, exploring some of the most important water stories of our time.  Commissioned by TV Ontario (TVO), the series is shown in over 40 countries, including the United States where it is available in 50 million homes on Participant Media’s PIVOT TV.  Additionally, they are winners of the BBC Earth Best Newcomers award at the UK’s Wildscreen festival, known as the “Green Oscars”

Alex and Tyler are huge supporters of the YRE Canada program and spoke at last year's winners workshop. This upcoming workshop, they will be hosting a special session where students can learn more about documentary filmmaking, including getting some hands-on experience. We’re excited to have them on-board!