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Project Welcome to UTROPIA! 1. Idea Only a worldwide conscient and fair relation to the world's resources gives our children a chance to live a good life. We invite you, vividly to get to know the biological production of tropical and local plants and the importance of Fair Trade with UTROPIA !
In our biological school garden we plant and harvest forgotten local vegetables, learn to make fire and meet people from far countries of the South. They show us how they plant and how they live. We work as farmers in Guatemala and cook our meals as Chilean indigenous people. We learn that potatoes, coffee, pumpkin and cocoa need a healthy soil. And we learn that the farmers in the North and the South need ecological production and Fair Trade to stay healthy and to be able to live. Understand global contexts while playing Elementary school kids and kids groups experience the biological production of tropical and old local plants while participating actively in the UTROPIA – project. Old German plants like „ Guter Heinrich “ and “ Calendula ”, that had been grown in all farmers gardens are endagered in the long run. Exotic plants like Mexican Beans are being grown as traditional alimentation or exported in tropical countries. The consumtion of non-local vegetables and fruit in Germany mostly goes without precise knowledge of how the plants are and under what kind of conditions they are being planted. Apart from the plants – production, kids get to know the farmers daily life, traditional artisanal techniques and cooking with local and exotical plants. An important aspect of UTROPIA is the guidance to a conscient way of life and knowledge of ecological and sustainable economy in terms of the Agenda 21 – Process. School kids and multipliers contribute actively to the conservation of plant diversity as part of the biodiversity by planting tropical and local plants. School kids live the plantation and transformation of plants and get to know how same-age kids live and work in countries in the South. An important aim is to make kids and adults understand how important ecological production of plants is for nature conservancy and how important social Fair Trade is for the farmers in the South. Small scale farmers from Central America not only describe their living and working conditions in their home countries within the project but they also tell the participants what contribution Fair Trade gives to resolving problems of migration, education or health at home. UTROPIA contributes to awareness of responsibility of school kids versus their natural environment. We make them recognize the importance of conserving the biodiversity of plants that save our lives on earth. Only through one's own experience of variable factors like weather, irrigation and soil structure do kids understand that people depend on nature and how they depend on it. Our focus is on practical activities in the school gardens like planting, maintaining and harvesting our plants. Work within nature needs arrangement, good cooperation and some discipline to gain our living base. Within the word UTROPIA there is „Utopia“, a vision of a better world. There is a tiny sound of „tropics“, huge vegetation, exotical fruit but also poverty in the so called third world. This connection is our intention. UTROPIA gives life to abstract terms like sustainable economy, nature conservancy, Fair Trade and promotion of biodiversity through:
1. Projects with school classes UTROPIA – Experts are continuously in charge of two elementary schools (Höfchensweg and Düppelstraße). In the school gardens we experience two annual cycles from plantation to harvest together with the kids. Apart from local vegetables threatened by extinction like „purple potatoes“, „Guter Heinrich“ or „icicles“ we also plant tropical vegetables like Topinambur, Mexican Beans or Hokkaido-Pumpkin. Work in and with nature demands arrangment, good cooperation and selfresponsable acting. UTROPIA is open to teachers, educators and all interested people. We show real opportunities to act, we show how kids and adults can contribute to the conservation of biodiversity, to Fair Trade and sustainable economy within their daily lives. To expand our contents beyond the project we educate educators and multipliers. Our aim is to make of UTROPIA an independent network for future.
In our theme weeks we consolidate parts of the project with local and international experts. Our international experts are from Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras, Togo and Chile among others. In their home countries they work as coffee farmers, orange farmers, foresters and gardeners. They offer the children and adults an authentic and interesting view of daily life and work.
4. Topical focus in the elementary schools:
Successful exhibition In 1999 the Aachen Worldshop made an exhibition called „Mercado Forestal“ for school kids in cooperation with the botanical garden. Shown were the dramatical consequences for the sensible ecosystem and local coffee and banana farmers caused by deforestation of rainforests. As a migrant exhibition „Mercado Forestal“ has now a demand within the whole of Germany and has been visited by many school clases and youth groups. Connection of Fair Trade and nature conservancy The Aachen Worldshop and the Aachen Union for Nature Conservancy (NABU) has been offering school classes in Fair Trade and nature conservancy at Aachen schools for many years with participation of small scale producers from Latin America. The sustainable relation with nature is one of the fundamental criteria of Fair Trade and local nature conservancy. One of the main aims of Fair Trade is the transformation to ecological production. So it was obvious to connect both sectors for a direct exchange of experiences. The successful cooperation was sponsored by Carl-Duisberg-Society (CDG), InWent, Protestant Development Service (EED) and the Foundation for Ecology and Development (SUE) among others and the reaction of all participants was very positive. Pilot project in 2003 In 2003 was the beginning of a large pilot project titled UTROPIA, directed by Biolog. Ina Sukkau, supported by the Aachen World Shop. The objective was to show the interrelation between nature conservancy and Fair Trade to elementary school kids in a practical and experimental way. The main focus was the common continuous work in the school gardens. The pilot project was received in a very positive way: more schools, educational institutions and others around Aachen showed their interest in cooperation. A comprehensive documentation is available at the UTROPIA-office. Mainly in schools there is a big demand on educational experimental and informative work we want to cover with our two-year educational project UTROPIA – Aachen Kids in Jungle Fever. Every theme week offers open activities like information nights, seminars, workshops and excursions for teachers, educationalists and interested kids and adults:
see above The UTROPIA-Team is presenting itself: Project management: Dipl.-Biol. Ina Sukkau Finance: Fritz Bock Development section: Kristina von Stosch Office and administration: Petra Müller Press work: Anna Stern Internet: Helmut Klemmer Voluntaries: Birgit Hambrock UTROPIA-Promoter:
Aachener Weltladen e.V.
Naturschutzbund Deutschland
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