Taking Action

Module 8 Lesson 1

LESSON #1: Taking Action for Environmental Sustainability Recicladores OVERVIEW:

In this lesson, students will consider how to take positive action in helping to improve the environment of their neighborhood. This lesson provides the introductory pathway for the lessons that follow. Ultimately, students will develop an action plan as a final project.

SUB-QUESTION:
How do I take stakeholder status with regard to the environment?

WAYS OF KNOWING URBAN ECOLOGY:

Understand
Students will Understand the role of local collective action in making positive environmental change and engaging the difficult choices of managing technology in various cultures and socioeconomic strata. (ecosystem change, ecosystem state and structure, human impact) No specific goals connected with acting on urban ecology in this lesson. No specific goals connected with acting on urban ecology in this lesson. No specific goals connected with acting on urban ecology in this lesson.

Talk Do Act

SAFETY GUIDELINES:
No specific safety issues are associated with this lesson.

PREPARATION: Time:
1 class period

MATERIALS:
Activity #8.1: Student handout sheets Access to the lesson Narrative: The Recicladores, Columbias Scavenger Families Unite to find their identity

INSTRUCTIONAL SEQUENCE:

Taking Action Activity 8.1: Read the narrative.

Module 8 Lesson 1

In this activity, students will read the narrative, The Recicladores, Columbias Scavenger Families Unite to find their identity. Students will take notes on the reading. You may want to remind students that Bogot, Columbia, was mentioned by Majora Carter in the video from Module 1, and you may even want to replay the video. 1. Discuss the opening questions with the students. You may want to write responses to the questions on the board, and ask your students to keep them in mind while reading and taking notes. 2. Have students take notes while reading the passages so that they are prepared for the questions that follow. 3. Read The Recicladores and ask students to share their impressions of the reading, as well as to discuss some of the notes they took.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. How do cities in the United States handle their recycled wastes? 2. In cities across the world recycling chores are often done by the underclasspeople who are very poor and oppressed. How do you think they survive to make a living?

3. Have you seen local reciladores in their own neighborhoods? 4. What environmental issues are you aware of in your own community? 5. What actions could individuals or groups take in order to improve their lives and their
environment, locally in your neighborhood and in other countries?

Closing Activity 1. Have students share their thoughts, either in writing or as a class discussion as to what they noticed as they saw as positive transformations that resulted from collective environmental action in the two reading passages. These observations will form the basis for their action project at the end of this module. a. Were there any differences in the populations of recicladores after they were organized by the ANR? b. Were the differences attributable to their action steps? c. How might the ANR help them to make further changes in their lives? d. What were some of the similarities and differences in the way that the communities in the two passages organized or were organized?

Taking Action

Module 8 Lesson 1

The Spanish version of the National Recicladores Association Website is offered below. http://www.anr.org.co/nentidad.php A United Nations website (in English) is also listed below. http://www.unesco.org/most/southam4.htm

Module 8 Lesson 1: The Recicladores, Columbias Scavenger Families Unite to find their identity As the urban populations of the world continue to grow, the challenge of finding work just keeps getting harder. Cities are extraordinary centers of culture and wealth. However, those resources are accessible only to people if they have the education and social connections to take advantage of them. For millions of poor urban residents, they must make a life for themselves on only the scraps of the great urban feast. Such is the case for the urban scavengers, like those below in Peru, who collect and recycle the materials found in the mountains of trash created by the people who live in the cities.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gusuval/187682799/

In the Central American country of Columbia, over 50,000 families in cities like Bogata live as scavengers called Recicladores. Although they are integral parts of the citys economy, they live as outcasts with little chance of enjoying the resources of the city. Wealthier residents avoid contact with the recicladores and consider them less than human. Most of the scavenger children receive no formal education and very poor health care. The outlook for the recicladores is very bleak. This is an urban tragedy that begs for intervention and action.

One such positive action has taken place in Columbia. Beginning in 1986, a group called Asociacion Nacional de Recicladores-ANR was formed to help scavenger families organize and begin to take part in the mainstream activities of Columbias urban centers. The ANR has become a program of hope and change for the recicladores The ANR program has met the most fundamental needs of the recicladores families. They helped them get health care, social security and other benefits from the government. In addition, they have opened up Scavengers Houses that provide school for the children, social services and act as meeting centers for the families. However, the program has had an even bigger impact in a different way. The ANR has become a business manager for the recicladores. The ANR representatives helped the recicladores organize their recycling programs. By providing storage facilities, helping to negotiate contracts with municipalities, or holding rallies to recruit new recicladores (as pictured below), the ANR has dramatically improved the lives of the urban scavenger families. To date, nearly 125,000 people have been helped by the ANR. By organizing the families and making the storage and distribution of recycled materials more efficient, the income of most families has gone up by 30%. There is much more work to be done. The United Nations Environmental Program is now using the ANR Program as a model for other scavenger families in Asia and Africa.

Taking Action Name: _________________________________ Date: _________

Module 8 Lesson 1 Class/Period:________

Lesson #1: Taking Action for Environmental Sustainability The story of Columbias Recicladores
Activity #1.1 The Plight of Scavenger Families the Recicladores
In this activity you read about the scavenger families in South America who make their living recycling the citys trash. Known in the local settings as Recicladores, these families struggle to survive in a world where they are terribly mistreated and considered sub-human by many of the wealthier city residents. These are the same residents who actually depend on the recicladores to have their trash recycled. Consider how these people have been able to help themselves through organizing and working together to better their lives and the conditions in their neighborhoods. In addition, you will use the examples from the narratives to help develop your own environmental action plan for your local neighborhood.

1. Read the narrative, The Recicladores, Columbias Scavenger Families Unite to find their Identity. 2. While reading The Recicladores, consider these questions and write down some notes: What makes the scavenger life so hard and dangerous? What aspects of their lives could be improved? Where else did we see situations like this where poor families were exploited as laborers in trash heaps? 3. Is there a group of people in your city who are similar to the recicladores? What Here are a few images from the narrative to get you started:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gusuval/187682799/

Above left: A reciladores family sorting trash in Lima, Peru. Above right, hundreds of recicladores sorting trash in a Central American landfill.

Taking Action Reflection Questions: The Recicladores How did the ANR in Columbia impact the lives of these families?

Module 8 Lesson 1

What social and environmental improvements were made as a result of the ANR and the local organizations that were started by the scavenger families?

How might these lessons be used to help local families in your neighborhood?

Based on your reflections above, write 2-3 research questions that you might be interested in exploring about the impacts of social change in the recicladores communities and in community action for environmental and social change? How does this story help you develop your own action plan?