Creative Youth Leadership in
Bi-National Water Conservation
Art Medium: Mural Painting and Letter-writing
Partner: IDAMHO
Location: Omoa, Honduras
This Binational project united youth from Guatemala and Honduras to develop solutions to the pollution of the shared Motagua River, which carries waste into their coastal communities and into the ocean. Through this CAP, a dialogue was opened between the two neighboring countries to build citizenship among youth regarding their participation in solving environmental problems that affect their communities.
Through penpal letter writing, youth in the two communities shared the problems they witnessed in their communities related to environmental pollution and also brainstormed ideas together to reduce the water contamination.
As a culmination of learning, youth in both countries painted a final mural to educate their respective communities on environmental preservation, waste disposal, and the importance of marine habit and health.
I learned to write a letter, to paint, to classify the types of garbage, that you should not throw garbage in the rivers because that contaminates the environment; what I liked the most was when we made the letters, we drew drawings for those in Quetzalito and also when we painted the mural. I will replicate what I have learned by making town members to clean the beaches, the rivers and the community, keeping it clean and having companies donate trash cans to put in grocery stores, so that the garbage can be thrown there and then recycled and reused so that there is not so much pollution
-Participant, 14yrs
