In November 2009 I visited the annual student gathering at the CEADB centre in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Each school was represented by a group of students to present the social action that had been done and exchange learning’s that had been acquired over the year. They came from four districts of Bolivia and had traveled long to participate in the event.
The first morning was filled with games and training, and on the afternoon the students presented their various social actions. There was everything from reforestation projects, cleaning up rivers to education of the community members in waste handling and recycling. All the projects where initiated and run by the youth, with the support from the teachers and tutors. Then at the evening there was a long program of artistic contributions from the students with poetry readings, music, dance and drama, showing in various ways their local cultural traditions.
The following day I had been asked to hold a workshop on organic toilets. I held the workshop where I first informed the participants about various types of organic toilets and the process of composting the waste thereof, then the students got to construct small models of one of the types of toilets that could be built by local material and with minimal resources. It was a workshop where the students got to train in reading blueprints in order to construct the model and collaborate in teams. In each of the groups there was one adult (their respective teacher/tutor), and it was interesting to note that the students very quickly took the command of the exercise and completed the task without the help of the adults.
The whole gathering was summed up by a evaluation and a consultation, then the students said goodbye and started to travel home, most of the students had a long way home, some by 8 hours of bus and then another 7 hours walking, but nevertheless they all were happy and inspired and left with radiant faces.
Written by Hannes Öhman
BIDAS 