Ecology unites: young leaders of the BRICS countries have developed nine international projects that can help solve current global challenges
In the Ulyanovsk region, the II BRICS International Youth Camp, which took place from August 1 to August 6 on the territory of the eco-hotel “Slavic Farmstead”, has completed its work. For the second year in a row, the event served as a practice-oriented platform for discussing and implementing ideas relevant to young leaders from the five countries.
The main topic of the Camp this year was Ecology and Sustainable Development.
“As part of the development of the environmental strategy approved by the President of the Russian Federation, the participants from the BRICS countries were tasked with solving environmental problems, such as improving the climate, minimizing pollution of the atmosphere and water bodies, as well as problems in dealing with both large municipal waste and garbage in general. Also, the participants of the Camp discussed such issues as promotion of ecological thinking, because we understand that without instilling basic, everyday habits, we will not make our country and our world cleaner,” said Gulnara Rakhmatulina, Minister of Nature and Cyclic Economy of the Ulyanovsk region.
During the week, almost 60 young leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa continued teamwork on environmental projects that will be implemented on the territory of the BRICS countries during the year: giving birth to the truth in disputes, the guys developed concepts and approved the goals of projects day after day. Such a format of work allowed young leaders not only to share their experience and voice the current problems of the five countries, but also to develop concrete proposals for their solution.
The honorary guests of the event were the Head of the International Activities Department of the Youth Projects and Programs Department of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh) Valeria Chernogorodova and the Executive Chairman of the National Youth Development Agency of the Republic of South Africa Asanda Luwaka, who highly appreciated the organization and potential of the event.
Just like a year ago, the program of the International Youth Camp came out rich and full of interesting events. On August 2, the day of the official Opening of the shift, after video greetings from the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Governor of the Ulyanovsk Region Alexey Russkikh, Minister of Youth and Sports of the Republic of India Anurag Thakur, Vice President of the All-China Youth Federation Xiu Xiao and Vice Minister for Women, Family and Human Rights Tatiana Alvarenga, a strategic session “Environmental challenges of our time in global and regional dimensions” was held.
In the following days, participants attended educational meetups, creative workshops, intellectual and sports games, as well as a seven-kilometer-long ecological hiking trail of the Jurassic geopark “Undoria”.
Another type of participants’ activities was the “Clean Games” competition, during which teams competed in collecting and sorting garbage on the designated territory of the Volga coastline. According to the International projects coordinator of the Russian public organization of ecological and patriotic education “Clean Games”, Belarusian eco-journalist Alexey Kupryakov, this format is very relevant.
“Our project has become international and has spread to 26 countries. This is garbage collection in the form of a quest: an exciting game with prizes, where participants search for artifacts, solve environmental puzzles, collect and share garbage, getting points for it. We hope that based on the results of the Camp we will be able to arrange such competitions between the BRICS countries,” the eco-journalist added.
During the six days of work, the Camp participants presented their project initiatives on such tracks as reservoirs cleaning, development of “green energy”, agroecology, environmental promotions and projects, as well as environmental education and advertising, forming practical solutions to problems relevant to international cooperation in these issues.
“The topics of the tracks were focused on the existing challenges in the field of sustainable development of the Ulyanovsk region. The participants exchanged perceptions of these challenges on the territory of all BRICS countries and started developing project initiatives for each track during the facilitation session “Matrix of Project Ideas”, which allowed identifying the most relevant and realistic initiatives that were selected for the development of projects within the Camp," said Lyubov Savelyeva, Project moderator-coach, certified coach of non-formal education and intercultural communication.
On the last day of the Camp, nine innovative eco-projects were presented to the experts, bringing international cooperation between the BRICS countries in the field of sustainable development to a new level. The ESG Digital School, a project to provide remote areas with electricity by placing solar panels there – “Mission SOLAR”, as well as the creation of a TikTok channel about the problem of water pollution “BRICSailors” are among the projects developed during the Camp.
The II International BRICS Youth Camp ended with the solemn ceremony of awarding certificates to the participants of the shift.
“I am very grateful that I was invited to take part in this unusual event – everything was just amazing, and each participant of the Camp was unique and delightful. Here I’ve met a lot of interesting people, made new friends and learned more about the BRICS community, each country of which has its own characteristics. This was especially reflected in the simple morning exercises in the mornings – according to the organizers’ idea, representatives of each country conducted exercises every day, weaving colorful dances to national music into the exercises. We all made this Camp a little different, thanks to our own efforts. It became a very interesting, unforgettable experience for me, and today I take with me only the warmest memories of our Camp, the hospitable city on the Volga and the incredible geopark “Undoria”, a trip to which especially sunk into my soul,” said Chen Jing, a participant from China.
The organizers of the event are the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh), the Government of the Ulyanovsk region (Russia) and the Russia – BRICS Project Office for International Youth Cooperation.