Nature lovers at work

Özet, Erasmus+ Project Results platformunda yayımlanan İngilizce metindir.

Amaç

Nylon bags had brought about industrialization and at the same time had negatively impacted on the environment. The bags were a danger both to nature and human lives. They created pollution of ecosystems besides contributing to cancer in humans. Scientists made a research, and the results proved that plastic bag utilization started in the entire world in 1982 and in Germany in the late 1980s. Their use first was an indicator of advancement, but after some time, their usage blossomed, and it was approximated that between 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags were consumed worldwide annually, where 380 billion of those were used in the United States. They were detrimental to the environment and in the human's health. The products in those bags, as said by the medical field, caused cancer, especially when put in such for foodstuffs. Though they were hazardous, they were still in high demand because of their cheap price. If their use had continued the environment would have been in a mess. In a project to reduce this damage, Eco-friendly bags like reusable, paper, and cloth bags were promoted, especially in shopping centers.

We had taken up an international project to create an awareness about the use of Eco-friendly bags. The project corresponded to the priorities of Erasmus+ Youth Exchange concerning youth work and non-formal education, support for youth organizations and volunteering, as well as intergenerational and international solidarity. Our main objective was to raise environmental consciousness among young people internationally by gathering participants from different countries to discuss and increase awareness on environmental issues. The general objective of this project was also to break cultural prejudices against Erasmus+ and visible acknowledgments of local organizations, which motivated them to develop new projects. We also tried to save our planet from destruction for the next generation by spreading awareness related to environmental conservation. We also strongly believed that,'' This could only be achieved through global cooperation and a mutual action plan; a better awareness of social responsibility and a healthier society were raised''. The project was also involved in increasing social awareness and a healthy society. Our goals could only be achieved through funding in five key areas such as accommodation, travel, and activity supplies, permits, and distribution materials, and this had to be implemented through sponsorship from sponsors, members, partners, and project grants.

Uygulama

Having returned to their home countries, with a new-found grasp of how the environment influences people and vice versa, the motivation and skills in working with environmentally friendly materials had not been lost on our project participants. Awareness and knowledge about nature and eco-sensitive materials were developed among the students. The young people, through the likelihood of putting their learning into practice, have thus come to be aware and knowledgeable about becoming responsive to nature, environment, climate, and materials to be used in their future life.
The young people, through practices like Fabric Bank Preparation, Market Network and Paper Garbage Bag Design realized how they can be activists in their life alone after reflection of practices, reiteration, and further enhancement of learning through the presentation of the expert, and experiential learning. The activities below made them be more conscious and active in using environmentally sensitive materials. They started to become activists, as they realized that nature and environmental destruction were not good for their happier lives. They also realized that the loudest statement they could make to others was not in words, but in lifestyle. By living a more nature-friendly lifestyle, they influenced the people around them to start doing the same.
Since their participation in the activity session called "Unknown Aspects of Nylon Bag" that had focused on the future impact of the non-eco-friendly nylon bags, they had come to realize that much damage to the environment is caused by nylon bags and materials. Consequentially, it was through the science-based activities that these young people came to see the harmfulness of how these materials were: non-eco-friendly nylon materials and others like them. All participants who went to this back to their countries have done remarkable studies on this.
We expected our students to be able to raise awareness towards global problems. Consequently, there were planned activities that involved active participation through exploration and reasoning. This approach facilitated improvements in personal development through the means of relating to learning skills. At the end of the project, they were to reflect on success and apply analytical thinking skills towards effectively tackling solutions to problems. In addition, they realized what benefits it would carry and were encouraged to involve themselves in volunteer activity. The wider public was introduced to the presence of the project through the use of workshops, street performances, flash mobs, and surveys, all of them. The public became followers of our project, which raised the issue of the need to keep the relationship between humanity and nature balanced. As a result of the project, they became more aware of the environmental concerns and advanced their campaign to protect the environment. Participants decided to avoid nylons and to adopt cloth bags for their use and also call upon other people to use and inculcate the use of eco-friendly products and to develop environmentally friendly behavior. We expected our partners to follow the same thing in implementing the project. And we had also prepared and timed these activities with the help of our partners. But as the host organization, the responsibility for these activities was on our shoulders. Though we did not have any experience in international projects before, our partners had really been a great support to us. We learned from the challenges and failures they had in their projects and designed alternative plans for solving the same in ours. So we expected that our partners would resort to using us as an example in their future projects.

Sonuçlar

Impacts on Target groups:

When everyone had returned to their home country, either with the help of the leaders or by their own arrangements, they all shared their experiences with regards to the project, starting with their circle of friends. Our participants worked together with the institutions and organizations they represented in sharing knowledge and skills that had been gained from the project and used their resources to promote the use of environmentally friendly cloth bags instead of plastic bags. They arranged some unofficial discussions and campaigns that made people realize the destruction caused by human beings to nature and the environment from their respective communities. The events went a long way toward making them more aware of the environment, nature, and the use of eco-friendly materials and their implementations in daily life.

Incredible dissemination activities were abated in front of the participants throughout the project in real-time. The activities were accomplished by the activist movements out at the most crowded parts of the city. Gained insights, thanks to the project, changed the attitude of participants, which fundamentally influenced their behavior about the use of such materials that do not harm nature and the environment. Furthermore, it drew attention to the Erasmus+ youth programs. It encouraged and motivated participants to undertake actions to protect nature and not to use such materials that are harmful to nature and the climate, like plastic bags.

Impacts on organization:

The general aim of our project was to promote awareness of young participants and also institutions and organizations that were partners of the project about the damage caused by plastic bags. The next step was to take actions whereby this message would reach wider audiences. The project aims at promoting use of market bags such as cloth bags and baskets as alternative to using materials that harm the environment especially the nylon bags. Participants also initiated an awareness campaign on the adversities of nylon bags to the environment and human health to only encourage reduction in the use of plastic bags. Though the target audience was any person in the whole world, the specific target was young people between 13-35 years who frequently shop and who use plastic bags. We, therefore, aimed at the dissemination of these products to a larger number of the people belonging to this age group, and this was the target through the dissemination activities conducted in our country and the countries of our partners, as elaborated in the relevant section. Our target audience became well aware of how these bags were causing harm to the ecosystem and humanity. They began researching such nature-friendly products as alternatives to notoriants and started preferring these products in their day-to-day lives. We also aimed to reduce the consumption of plastic bags, since our target groups would diffuse their behaviors of acting with this awareness to the people around them. Realizing our project as an Erasmus+ project, we informed more people about the existence of such projects, thus increasing the quality of them.