Members of the National Climate Change Office in Argentina have been fresked!
Argentine freskers facilitated a workshop for a dozen people from various government ministries in July. It’s a great example of a community-driven initiative, fresking teams who are working at the heart of politics, opening very promising new opportunities.
Argentina has recently enacted two laws promoting environmental education
“Ley Yolanda” aims to guarantee a complete environmental training for everyone working in the public sector and, of course, this includes learning about climate change. It was voted in by the government in November 2020.
Argentina decided to go further and brought in another law a few months later. It intends to put in place an environmental education programme for everyone in the country! Its objective is to develop a national strategy that enables environmental education to reach every part of the private and public education sector, for all ages and social groups.
It’s in this context that our volunteer freskers launched their own, very timely, initiative! What an opportunity!
From Véronica’s one action to the Environment Ministry
Véronica has been an active fresker in Argentina since 2021 and she presented the workshop to the Malaweche indigenous community that lives in Malargüe, a city just south of Mendoza. She fresked the leader of that community, who was particularly interested in the topic. In fact, he was the representative of indigenous peoples at the National Advisory Council to the Climate Change Cabinet, which is part of the Environment and Sustainable Development Ministry.
He mentioned Climate Fresk during a meeting with that group in December 2021, having been convinced of the power of the workshop.
Two months later, someone from the Environment Ministry got in touch with Véronica to discuss Climate Fresk with her!
Fruitful exchanges and a number of participants!
One thing led to another and Véronica presented Climate Fresk to five other members of the Ministry, who were all involved in different government initiatives such as the Adaptation teams, and the National Strategy and Action plan for Environmental Empowerment (ENACE).
She had a clear message: Climate Fresk is the perfect tool for implementing the law promising environmental education for everyone, as well as “Ley Yolanda” ! There was no better way to convince them than by running a workshop, so she arranged an online session for them.
The original participants invited others to join from the National Office on Climate Change and the Environmental and Sustainable Development, and Education ministries. That’s how a dozen people working at the heart of government got to learn the fundamentals of climate science!
A Climate Fresk collaboration that led to a successful workshop
With the Climate Fresk community in Argentina at a very early stage, Véronica asked the NGO to help find another experienced fresker to facilitate with her. That’s how she came to meet Lucile, the coordinator in Mexico.
Between them, they co-facilitated the workshop for 12 participants, split into two groups of 6.
The feedback to the workshop was very positive!
I really enjoyed the collective intelligence approach and the fact that all the explanations are borne from working together. I also appreciate that all participants get to read out their cards, ensuring that everyone contributes, even those who are less confident.
I found it to be a very dynamic and interesting proposal because it’s a way of working with the general public that gets them to think about climate change and access scientific knowledge that can be inaccessible if you have to read the reports directly. This way, it’s much easier to absorb the information.” was the feedback from another participant.
One of the participants, Cecilia, said that she wanted to become a facilitator herself!
So, it is a big success story for our freskers, Véronica and Lucile, and a promising step for spreading the Fresk and climate education in Argentina. Thank you to everyone for bringing such drive and energy!