Votorantim Metals's Três Marias unit promotes on Friday, June 27, at the Associação Atlética Mineira de Metalurgistas [Athletic Association of the Metallurgists of Minas Gerais] (AAMM), the graduation of 14 young attendants in the Project Jovens Educadores, an initiative performed in partnership with Votorantim Institute.
The project has capacitated young people interested in environmental issues and that aim at searching an opportunity at the work market. The purpose of Votorantim Metals is to promote a program of professional formation in the environmental area, which also stimulates the implementation of local programs that involve other young people on a proactive way at the construction of sustainable alternatives for their municipalities.
Arising from fishermen families in the region of the Consórcio dos Municípios do Lago de Três Marias (Comlago), the graduated young people are between 18 and 25 years old. In July, the second class starts with 14 more young people, whose graduation will take place in December. The training program is coordinated by the technical team of Comlago and by a specialized educator. Besides the theoretical classes, the young also participates in a professional internship in environmental bodies of the Regional Agenda 21 Forum.
"We verified that there are young people from the riverside communities of Três Marias who have a great will to work with environmental education and communal development", says Eugênio Hermont, general manager of Três Marias unit of Votorantim Metals. "The attendants of the project are capacitated to become juvenile leaders, disseminating and replicating the knowledge obtained in the program", adds Hermont.
The Project was performed in the Support Center to the Fisherman, with theoretical and practical classes, through participative methodologies that demand planning, action, reflection, and evaluation of the young. For each class, the modules totalize a workload of 240 hours, for 6 months, and the internships will be of 30 weekly hours for 17 weeks.
At the end of the year, 28 young people will be apt to act in their communities. There are graduates who are already in assured jobs. This is the case of Angélica Cristina da Silva, 21 years old, trainee in the Environmental Secretariat of the City Hall of Três Marias. "The project was a unique opportunity, that I will never forget. Due to the fact that I am daughter of a fisherman, it was very hard to get a job. After the course, many doors were opened".
The acting of Comlago is highlighted for the experience in environmental education and social mobilization, geographical information systems and hydrous resources management. "The Project Jovens Educadores has a great importance for the region, and makes it possible for the young, sons and grandsons of fishermen, to receive a training of experts in the environmental area and to be capacitated to act in an area that gains more and more importance in the universe of the companies", says Sílvia Freedman Ruas Duraes, Comlago Director.
With the participation in the Project Jovens Educadores, the young will also take the knowledge to their families, to the community in which they live, and to the students of public schools. The target-activities of the project promote the research and the debate on the environment in many sectors of the society, at the same time in which it helps the young to develop skills valued by the work market. Besides the benefits in terms of environmental education during the implementation period, the young produced materials that can suit to develop future activities of environmental education.