P&G and WWF inaugurate the Nature Classroom of the Parmenide State Comprehensive Institute of Ascea. Promote and enhance green spaces for children and young people in Italian schools, with the aim of educating new generations to respect the environment.
This is the leitmotif of the WWF Nature Classrooms project, supported by Procter & Gamble as part of the corporate citizenship program “P&G for Italy,” with which the company is implementing concrete actions of environmental and social sustainability throughout the country. The goal of the initiative is to create, by 2024, over 50 Nature Classrooms in schools throughout Italy.
At today's meeting, a Nature Classroom with more than 180 square meters was inaugurated, the central point of the school, where small ecosystems are recreated such as the butterfly garden and the pond suitable for sheltering birds and insects. Mediterranean plants, such as mastic, phillyrea, strawberry tree and myrtle delimit the space of the classroom, where aromatic herbs, the composter and the nest boxes also find their place, also protagonists of the educational activities. 140 students will use it in the 2022/23 school year and 130 students in the 2023/24 school year.
After the welcome by the Headmaster Prof. Luca Mattiocco, Raffaele Lauria, WWF Italy Delegate for Campania and Lina Morzillo, WWF Italy Education Sector, spoke to present the project. The inauguration was also attended by the mayor of Ascea, lawyer Pietro D'Angiolillo, the councilor for the budget and deputy mayor Dr. Stefano Sansone, the councilor for education Dr. Alessandra Vaccaro, the press office of the radio and television broadcaster SET TV (presenter Carmela Santi).
The Institute is located in the Cilento National Park near the Archaeological Park of Ancient Velia, a beautiful but also fragile territory, located near the sea and repeatedly at the center of scandals related to the trafficking of dangerous waste. The increase in oncological diseases is a strong alarm signal to be monitored. The school institution, here more than anywhere else becomes the point of reference for the entire educational community of Ascea in the defense and protection of the territory and the fight against illegality.
School programming is increasingly attentive to environmental issues and close to the territory, from the first experimental projects in nature with the educational garden, the open spaces of the School are thought of as an educational and formative opportunity, re-proposing a model of outdoor education present in ancient Velia and in Greece at the time of paideia.
“The partnership with WWF is the most important one ever made by P&G in Italy on an environmental theme and is part of the broader program of corporate citizenship “P&G for Italy”, through which we want to carry out concrete actions in Italy in the field of environmental and social sustainability – explained Riccardo Calvi, Communications Director of P&G Italy. We are thrilled to give the students of the Istituto Comprensivo Statale Parmenide of Ascea a Nature Classroom, a precious green space that involves the new generations on a fundamental theme such as environmental education and the protection of biodiversity, which we believe is crucial for real sustainable development. The Nature Classroom of Ascea joins the more than 20 already created in Italy together with WWF and is a further step forward towards the goal of creating more than 50 by 2024”.
“The adoption of lessons in an open environment allows us to improve the quality of learning, overcoming what several scholars have defined as a real nature deficit disorder that involves inattention, listlessness, boredom, in addition to the traditional dangers associated with a sedentary lifestyle – said Maria Antonietta Quadrelli, Education Manager for WWF Italy. We strongly believe in this project, which sees Procter & Gamble Italy as a very important supporter and promoter, because it manages to offer contact with nature to the youngest, redeveloping spaces in schools that are often degraded or unused, proposing their educational use to lay the foundations for a true ecological and cultural transition. This is a priority action for WWF Italy, as well as demonstrating to municipal and provincial institutions that it is possible to operate in this direction”.
THE NATURE CLASSROOM PROJECT
Launched by WWF in September 2020, after the first lockdown, the traditional schoolyard becomes a small oasis of nature, a real outdoor classroom. The Nature Classroom is a space with walls made of hedges, flower borders, vegetable boxes, insect cages and a pond. A “green” surface of at least 80 square meters that guarantees optimal distancing between young students. It reproduces different microhabitats in which to directly observe not only the different forms of living beings, but also the relationship that connects them to each other and to us.
In choosing the Nature Classrooms, WWF followed, among other things, criteria related to schools particularly in need of recovering outdoor spaces, located in degraded or peripheral areas. The Nature Classrooms enjoy the patronage of the Associazione Culturale Pediatri (ACP).
Two years after the launch of the project, 22 Nature Classrooms have been created throughout Italy, for a total of 4.500 m11 of redeveloped school gardens (previously abandoned or in a state of decay). Currently, almost XNUMX primary school children can use the classrooms.
WWF – P&G PARTNERSHIP
The collaboration between P&G Italia and WWF includes four strategic areas of intervention: education of new generations, within which P&G will support WWF in the creation of over 50 Nature Classrooms by 2024; support for environmental redevelopment projects, through which P&G together with WWF will redevelop more than one million square meters of woods in Italy by supporting the ReNature project; education programs for a more conscious and responsible use of products at home and training of tomorrow's managers through study paths created together with the European Institute for Sustainable Development.
P & G
P&G products are used by nearly 5 billion people worldwide. Procter & Gamble owns one of the most important portfolios of quality brands including: Dash®, Fairy®, Lenor®, Mastro Lindo®, Swiffer®, Viakal®, AZ®, Kukident®, Oral B®, Olaz®, Pantene®, Head&Shoulders®, Gillette®, Venus®, Braun®. P&G operates in 70 countries worldwide and has been present in Italy since 1956. For more information visit the website https://it.pg.com and follow the accounts Instagram (@proctergambleit), Linkedin (@Procter&GambleItalia), Youtube (@proctergambleit).
Article published by Regina Ada Scarico on October 24, 2022, at 17:56 PM
I have worked for over 15 years in the world of theater and entertainment in general and I have had very long experiences as an administrator and coordinator of companies in complex shows, with numerous actors and staff. I have always taken care of the theater companies and also in the more general context of the organization of events, both the relationships with third parties and entities and those with the press and the world of mass media, having managed the press office in full autonomy several times on the occasion of shows, reviews, exhibitions and events
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