The Youth Exchange “Love Earth” is a project organized by Associação Pro Active Azores PAA, focusing on the topic of environmental sustainability and maritime pollution. The project was funded by the Erasmus+ programme and it took place from the 16th to 23rd March 2023.
The “Love Earth” project was developed in response to the culture of indifference regarding matters of maritime pollution and waste in the participating countries of Czechia, Romania, Greece, Portugal, Croatia and Italy. The project is structured upon several objectives, including:
Discovering and raising awareness over different social, economic and environmental issues and realities in different countries, as well as identifying potential solutions for them by using the participants’ own input, ideas and skills.
Positively contributing to innovative work, a collective force for Environmental Activism
Growth and development of skills on environmental activism and opportunities in coastal areas.
Discovering the local realities as an example of potential activities and solutions to improve the local issues in other countries.
Meeting and discovering other countries’ cultures, traditions and identities.
Raising awareness and developing specific knowledge on current environmental issues and how to transfer this knowledge to the participants’ communities.
The main results from the project activities involved the creation of an ocean prevention and care campaign consisting of 4 steps:
the development of a manual on what is maritime pollution, how to prevent and remediate it (info, tips and content, involving case studies)
a digital campaign of the project to raise public awareness of pollution and how to help environmental recovery (social networks, logo, slogan, templates)
a dissemination plan for the project campaign to impact on young people and reach the general population (goals to achieved, target audience addressed, channels used, etc.)
content creation (audiovisual recording) collecting testimonies and messages from participants to promote and raise awareness of the importance of our forests, etc.
Besides others, activities included discussing and raising awareness over the status quo of local conditions in each country of participation, the importance of preserving cultural heritage, learning about the Azores Destination Management Organisation, the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and learning about the “Lazy Person’s Guide to Saving the World”, as well as discovering all the participants’ countries in the context of the intercultural nights.