Young reporters produce content in solidarity with victims of the climate tragedy in Southern Brasil

Young students from Rio de Janeiro's municipal school network who are part of the Kids20 project have produced content concerning the tragedy that hit Southern Brasil. The approach is informative and awareness-raising. The productions include TV newscasts, a podcast, letters and a comic book; students also arranged for supplies to be donated.

Empathy, solidarity and the desire to cooperate are among the noble feelings children express with great simplicity. One good example of this are the actions and content produced by students at project ANDAR (Agência de Notícias Alunos da Rede), under the coordination of Rio de Janeiro’s Municipal Department of Education (Secretaria Municipal de Educação do Rio de Janeiro). Youngsters from several schools in Rio organized themselves to produce informative and awareness-raising materials regarding the climate tragedy affecting the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. 

Another example of such demonstrations came from young reporters from the Pablo Neruda Integrated Center for Public Education (CIEP Pablo Neruda) who recorded a special edition of “CPN Digital” news about Rio Grande do Sul. Meanwhile,  students from the Ginásio Educacional Olímpico Nicarágua (GEO Nicarágua) wrote letters full of hope, and produced a special comic book edition about the letters. At the Municipal School Marechal Alcides Etchegoyen (Escola Municipal Marechal Alcides Etchegoyen), youth produced a special episode for the podcast “A Marechal Tá On” (Marechal is On) dedicated to the situation in Rio Grande do Sul.

CPN Digital

“Marechal is on”

Letters of hope

In the Reading Circle (Círculo de Leitura) classes at GEO Nicaragua, youngsters wrote letters with messages of hope which were sent alongside donations to the citizens of Rio Grande do Sul. Find out more here:

Pedro in Letters of Hope comic book

GEO comic book artist Gabriel Portela, who author of a comic book for the G20 released earlier this year, prepared a new comic edition in which he illustrated the GEO Nicaragua students’ experience of writing letters to be sent to Rio Grande do Sul. Find out more here:

So far, 450 of Rio Grande do Sul’s 497 municipalities have declared a state of public calamity following the greatest flood in Brasil’s history. The proportions of the disaster have already surpassed that of Hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans in 2005. Katrina flooded 2,400 kilometers of land, and displaced 400,000 people, while the rains in Rio Grande do Sul have already flooded an area of ​​3,800 kilometers and displaced more than half a million people.

The topic has been permeating discussions in various G20 working groups, and a great deal of solidarity has been expressed by member and invited countries, as well as other entities. Within the Sherpa Track, the Disaster Risk Reduction Working Group specifically addresses critical issues referring to managing crises and catastrophes on a global scale.

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