A Todo Pulmón-Paraguay Respira, one of Peace Corps/Paraguay’s most important and active partner organizations, is currently implementing an environmental governance project in the departments of Alto Paraná, Itapúa and Caazapá. A component of this project involves training local community members in better environmental management in their homes and in public institutions. From March 18-23, a team from A Todo Pulmón, accompanied by the Environmental Conservation Peace Corps Volunteer Paige Schwarz, visited the town where she serves as volunteer in the department of Alto Paraná, to hold a series of theoretical and practical training sessions on solid waste management and gardening, as well as planting 250 trees on school properties.

For three separate mornings, the team held the training sessions with adults and children separated, in order to respect different learning styles, and learned about the waste situation in Paraguay. Over 70% of waste in Paraguay is organic, and an effective technique for managing organic waste is through composting, so Paige, working with A Todo Pulmón staff, lead the team training adults to show how to make a proper compost pile, how to manage it and the benefits associated with composting. After each presentation, she led the groups through the steps to create a compost pile and each group effectively made a new pile.

Meanwhile, other A Todo Pulmón staff led the students through environmentally-themed activities and games, covering topics, such as the importance of trees and reforestation, and how to sort and separate trash. Each day, after the training sessions, participants were offered snacks and then planted trees so that future generations can enjoy their shade and the inherent benefits of native trees. In total, 210 students (grades 4-6) and 60 parents/teachers attended the activities, 3 compost piles were created and 250 trees were planted. The activities were held at three of the eight participating schools and children from the other five schools were bussed to the closest to their community, while the trees were planted in each school.