Emma Espley from Create to Inspire, has been working alongside Adriana Meirelles, a professional film producer and animator, who was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, but now living in Bristol. They were fortunate to secure some funding from the Geographical Association (GA)’s Initiatives Fund back in early 2020 to facilitate the delivery of a multi-schools event for those within the Gloucestershire/South Gloucestershire/Bristol area.
The prevalence of the pandemic meant that this had to be adapted somewhat, but, as you can see from the videos and blogs on their website, it was nonetheless a huge success. They have now delivered more virtual multi-schools events than they can remember, which is wonderful. Details about each one can be found within their blog here.
Adriana Meirelles and Emma are now in regular contact with a tribe from the Kambeba indigenous community within the heart of the Amazon. They have been liaising with the Chief, Chico, teachers and children there, sharing the activities that they have done with pupils in schools within the UK, along with their creations and comments/thoughts about climate change, deforestation, etc. The Kambeba children have completed similar activities with them via Whats App and Zoom and produced footage for them to showcase to youngsters.
Emma asks:
We would like to include the Chief, teachers and children in our future virtual multi-schools events, but, in order to achieve this, they require a more stable Internet connection in the Amazon (if it rains, then they are unable to connect to the Internet, which can be quite frequent!) and access to a laptop.
We have received a quote from Chico (£1200) and would really love to support them in gaining access to such technology if we can. We have just launched a campaign and competition, encouraging schools to think about an activity that they might do to raise some money. Those schools that raise the greatest amount and in the most innovative way will be rewarded with a FREE place at one of our future virtual multi-schools events (worth £250). Once schools have risen to our challenge, they have been asked to send us an image, which is representative of their fundraising activity and with a caption that describes what they did and how much they managed to raise.
