Thanks to 67 children from Opole, we have 300 new trees!

The 7th Zott Academy in Poland took place on April 6th, 2019 at the public primary school No. 5 in Opole.

67 children from 20 different schools were keenly waiting for the academy to start. The event was free-of-charge for all the attending children, aged from 8 to 15.

The Academy began with some welcoming words of Małgorzata. Then the full attention of the children turned to the presentation “Now we children save the world!” given by Climate Justice Ambassador Maciej. Complex topics, such as sources of CO2, global warming, photosynthesis, the climate crisis, and global justice were presented in a suitable way for children – and nobody could be better for that task than a child of the same age as Maciej. After the presentation, the participants had the chance to clarify their questions.

For the following part, the children were divided into small groups, to learn about global distribution and global justice in the so-called “World Game”. The children distributed tokens, candies, and balloons among the continents displayed on the world map. The three playing figures symbolize the world’s population, wealth and CO2 emissions respectively. After seeing the real-life distribution of these resources, all children agreed that the distribution was unjust. Although only 5 percent of the population lives in North America, they possess almost 30 percent of the world income and emit 20 percent of CO2 emissions. Therefore the children redistributed the candies and balloons, in order to visualize how a fair distribution would look like and to keep in mind that everyone should have equal rights. In order to take action and speak up for their future, the children need good presentation and speaking skills. Therefore the participants prepared and presented short passages from the opening presentation they had listened to in the morning. They gave each other feedback on how to improve their presentations in the future.

After a short lunch break, the children had the opportunity to take action for their future right away: They went to plant trees! In addition, they received information on how to plant trees, when to plant them and how to take care of them. In return, the participants were able to show off their newly gained knowledge about the role and importance of trees. In total, they planted 300 European spruce (Picea abies) trees. After that, the children talked with the forester about the life of the forest. The children finished the planting event with a magnificent Stop Talking, Start Planting battle cry!

Back to the primary school in Opole, a small group practiced the final presentation for the evening event and the rest of the children started the World Café. During this activity, the participants were collecting ideas to the questions on how to get the attention of the media, how to motivate adults, friends, and classmates and how to organize a planting party. Afterward, the children gathered in their school groups and planned their own project, which they want to implement after the Academy.

At the end of the day, family, friends, and guests arrived for the evening event. The children proudly presented the prepared presentation and their ideas from the World Café. An interesting day had come to an end. Apart from the experience and newly found knowledge, all participants were appointed as Climate Justice Ambassadors and received a certificate, a Plant-for-the-Planet T-shirt and the book ‘Tree-by-Tree’. Organizers and guests were very impressed by the performance of the children.

The Academy was made possible thanks to the commitment of Zott and due to the team of local organizers. Special thanks go to the Plant-for-the-Planet Programme Coordinator Ewelina and also to the Plant-for-the-Planet moderators, teachers and Zott employees.

A huge thanks to all the helpers around the venue, technology, food and tree planting event. Without their support, the Academy would not have been possible.

In order to see the rest of the pictures from the Academy click here!

And if you would also like to become a Climate Justice Ambassador, apply through this site.