Last month, 15-19 of March, more than 50 people from all over the world gathered in Almada, Portugal for one of the biggest international YRE Mission so far! This three-day workshop focused on Education for Sustainable Development and aimed at creating future Youth Leaders. The event was realized as a cooperation between UNESCO and Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE).

42 inspiring young people, aged between 18 and 35, had been selected to participate due to their specific knowledge, skills, and passion for the environment. Read the profiles of each participant here.

The first day of the workshop consisted welcome speeches, an ice breaker activity, and four interactive sessions on leadership, systems thinking, conflict transformation, and sustainability.

This knowledge was put to use on the second day when the participants visited and researched different environmental organisations and projects around Lisbon. On this day, the participants also wrote articles, made photo reportages and edited videos about the site visits. Some stayed up all night to deliver the best possible result! Their work can be seen on Exposure - Look for the UNESCO Youth Forum / YRE Mission tagline.

On the third day, the groups presented their work and got feedback from the facilitators and the other participants. The final session was about networking and also served as inspiration for their future role as Youth Leaders.

For personal reflections on the three days, visit:
Connie Le’s photo blog
Kristin Rodrigo’s video blog
Vinh Le's blog post
KyAsia Scott-Fishenden 's article

Video editor: Kai Xiang (participant from Singapore)

Now, the 42 new Youth Leaders are expected to lead a positive change in their respective countries. Within the next two months, they will be carrying out specific actions to promote environmental awareness in their local communities. Radio interviews, news articles, photo and video blogs, and presentations have already been made! We’ll be following their work and results!

A big thank you to UNESCO for making this workshop possible and to the Portuguese organisation ABAE for hosting the event. Also thank you to the four amazing facilitators who carried out the sessions:

Mona Zoghbi (Sustainable Development Consultant)
Emmanuel Koro (Environmental journalist)
Pedro Marcelino (Journalist, writer and film producer)
Christopher Slaney (Freelance journalist and television news producer)