United Nations opens space for discussion on Education and sustainability

The workshop attracted professionals from the field of education from different countries; find out what they thought of the event.

By the Editorial Staff

Tuesday | October 14, 2014 | 10:39 AM | Last update: September 22, 2016, 4:07 PM (Brasilia time)

On August 29, the Legion of Good Will (LBV), a Brazilian civil society organization, coordinated a discussion panel entitled Educating Sustainable Citizens — Best practices of Brazil from the Rio+20. The workshop was part of the 65th Annual NGO Conference of the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI), which took place between August 27 - 29 in the UN Headquarters in New York.

The panel, moderated by the LBV’s representative to the UN Danilo Parmegiani, was comprised of Mr. Vicente Amaral Bezerra, representative of the Permanent Mission of Brazil to the United Nations; psychologist and psychoanalyst Joseph DeMeyer, Co-Chair of the NGO Committee on Education and representative of the Society of Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI), both at the United Nations; Suelí Periotto, PhD student in Education at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP), Supervisor of the Pedagogy of Affection and the Ecumenical Citizen Pedagogy, and Principal of the José de Paiva Netto Educational Institute; and Sâmara Malaman, MA in Special Education from Kean University.

In a talk on the teaching proposal of the Organization, the audience had the opportunity to hear some of the success stories and learn more about the results of the Pedagogy of Affection and the Ecumenical Citizen Pedagogy, which were created by educator Paiva Netto, the President of the LBV. Among the material exhibited was a video produced with students from the Good Will Educational Complex*¹ in São Paulo (Brazil), which gave a view of the importance of the rational use of water from the perspective of children. Watch the video:
 

 

The workshop attracted professionals from the field of education from various countries, as an example of Dr. Julie Gerland from France, representative of the World Organization of Prenatal Education Associations (OMAEP) at the United Nations. “I was delighted really to see such loving care in a school system that’s not just feeding the brains of the children but really educating them in how to live life, to how to build community, how to be aware of their environment,” she said in an interview with the Super Good Will Communications Network*².

Dr. Gerland also emphasized the importance of promoting education even before the birth of the child: “I’ve just learned that you do have a program which includes mothers. . . . If we could give mothers when they’re pregnant the opportunity to be surrounded by community instead of just being isolated in their own homes, . . . this would just be really contagious through her state of being pregnant, and that baby would come into the world feeling loved, feeling supported, feeling connected with the other children, and as a global citizen. And today we know that this is scientifically true: that Education does begin before birth, so why not include the mothers? And somebody said ‘include the fathers,’ which I’m totally in agreement with.”

From India, Mrs. Celine Paramunda, representative of the Medical Mission Sisters at the United Nations, said: “What you’re doing through educating the children, this kind of values, is very important. And I’m so glad I came for this program and congratulations for doing it. And I have also taken your video in my pen drive. So, I will be using it for the students where I give talks about the United Nations and best practices.”

STUDENTS FOR PEACE

The educational proposal of the Legion of Good Will has been achieving good results in seven countries: Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, the United States, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Portugal. On the occasion, educator Sâmara Malaman presented the results of the LBV’s educational program in the United States Good Will Students for Peace, which is developed in American public schools.

In a recent edition of the program, the LBV’s teaching method was applied in the Lincoln Avenue School in Orange (New Jersey) with the theme My Home is the Planet Earth — Our role as environmentally aware citizens. Based on research and studies, the students prepared posters and recycling projects for the classrooms and carried out a clean-up task-force in the area surrounding the school to mobilize the community into preserving the environment.

Check out the results of this partnership in a video produced by the students themselves:

 

From the Dominican Republic, Daniel Méndez, who is studying for master’s degree in Education at Lehigh University, talked about his impressions: “The information that I received in this workshop was very . . . I would say sustainable, because creating students that understand their environment, their civic demands, and participating in their community is very important. . . . Once I go back to my country I would like to try to take this program there.”

THE CONFERENCE

The 65th Annual UN DPI/NGO Conference brought together civil society, international networks, and activists to prepare a joint “Action Agenda” that mobilizes the negotiations on the post-2015 development goals. Under discussion were the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which will replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the deadline for which is 2015, as well as a new climate agreement to substitute the Kyoto Protocol.

On the second day of the event, UN Radio in Portuguese made room in its program schedule and invited the Legion of Good Will to talk about its teaching method. In an interview with reporter Eleutério Guevane, educator Suelí Periotto emphasized the LBV’s concern with offering quality education that is allied with values that enrich knowledge and that are applied in favor of society as a whole. She also explained that the Organization’s educational proposal has its own methodology, which allows the students to have a voice. In this way, they participate actively in the whole learning process. This enriches school projects and activities and ensures zero dropout rates. Find out more about the LBV’s teaching proposal.

Listen to the full interview (in Portuguese):

 

LBV at the UN

The Legion of Good Will is a civil society organization in general consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) since 1999, and associated with the UN Department of Public Information (DPI) since 1994.

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Good Will Educational Complex — The Jesus Super Day Care Center and the José de Paiva Netto Educational Institute, which together make up the LBV’s Educational Complex, are operating units, by means of which the Organization seeks to fully prepare the pupil. In these places, the students — who attend lessons from nursery school to middle school — develop, in an harmonious way, their minds and hearts, and therefore their intellect allied with feeling, and are provided with all their socio-educational needs.
Super Good Will Communications Network — The term refers to the vehicles of communication 100% Jesus, whose purpose is to propagate the fraternal ideals of Ecumenism without restrictions: Super Good Will Radio Network, Good Will TV (SKY channel 20), Education and Future Television Network – Re-educate, Good Will Portal and publications of Ecumenical Spirituality.