Venice and the kindergarten of the lagoon, children discover sustainability with Unesco

I have seen the lagoon. It is like the sea, but only smaller”, Lorenzo is 4 years old and lives in Mestre. This is how he describes his adventure sailing between the distant islands of Venice. Such a long journey on the water he, a small Venetian from the mainland, not the had never done. Not even Eitan, 5 years old, who despite living in the Cannaregio district, believed in his imagination that Venice was “inside a large lake”. And instead he discovered that there are also islands: “Then there is still the water and then other islands. Even with houses and churches”.

Eitan and Lorenzo are among the children of the six Venetian nursery schools who participated in the first lesson of the international project “Kindergarten of the Lagoon“, the kindergarten of the lagoon fruit of the collaboration between the Unesco’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and the Prada Group. Initiative born within the United Nations Decade of Marine Sciences and Sustainable Development. “Our goal is to form the ecological awareness of tomorrow’s citizens – he explained Frances Santoro, oceanographer and coordinator of the Ocean Education Program at Unesco – that’s why we work with children. We want them to have a bond with the world around them, to develop their own ability to observe nature, to know the ecosystem that is part of the place where they live, in their case it is the Venetian lagoon”.

Presented in May at the headquarters of the Prada Foundation, the first forty children participating in the Kindergarten of the Lagoon arrived on 24 January, precisely on the International Day dedicated to education, on the island of Torcello, an island that has just 11 residents but which hosts one of the oldest basilicas in Venice. Here among the archaeological remains and the canals, the little ones took part in the first of ten outdoor lessons with Unesco experts. A total of 120 Venetian children, aged 3 to 6, will be involved in the project desired by Prada and Unesco, to which the Municipality of Venice has given full support, making water buses and public transport available. Above all by creating a connection with families and teachers from the 17 mainland nursery schools and the historic centre. Schools that thanks to this initiative will become part of the Blue Schools a recognition from the European Commission, towards those institutes that have promoted Ocean Education. Teachers, male and female students will eventually be nominated”agents of change and promoters of the sustainability of the ocean and seas“.

On the island and in the background the Basilica founded by the first Venetian peoples who arrived on the islands, the children learned to distinguish the colors of the lagoon, looking at it and painting with watercolours, green, blue and brown. Guided by the explanations of Elizabeth Mitrovic illustrator and naturalistic popularizer, recreated Murano glass with papier-mâché together with Sophia Sarria member of a family of Venetian artisans, and looking through a microscope at samples of water they took from the canal, they discovered together with a researcher from the University of Padua that there are not only fish in the water. “They will repeat the same observation in the spring and then again during the summer to see the entire cycle of the lagoon ecosystem”, explained Francesca Santoro.

The goal of UNESCO, which has supported the Venice project presented by the Prada Group since 2019, is to create an ecological culture and awareness in children, to recover traditions and better understand the ocean and the central role it plays in Sustainable Development. The one in Venice, the city symbol of the sea, is only the beginning, in fact other cities have already asked to be able to organize the project with Unesco. And to underline how important the Laguna asylum is considered to be for the international agency, he took part in the inauguration Ana Luiza M. Thompson Flores director of the Unesco regional office for science and culture in Europe which is based in Venice and connected, Vladimir Ryabinin Executive Secretary of the Oceanographic Commission and Deputy Director General who described the children as “the future guardians of the oceans”.

An open platform

In Torcello he also wanted to be present for the first lesson Lorenzo Bertelli Head of Corporate Social Responsibility of the Prada Group who got on the vaporetto with the children and cut the ribbon: “After so many meetings, it was exciting to finally see their faces so happy and serious as they draw in the open-air educational workshops. L ‘Asilo della Laguna, which shows how public and private can work together for the good of the community, is part of our larger and more international Sea Beyond project for the preservation of the sea to which we are very attached and which we carry forward with the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission I am convinced that these sensations experienced by children will remain in their minds and in their memories as adults. It happened to me too: part of my environmental responsibility comes from childhood memories”. Announced, but not revealed, a new step in the Sea Beyond initiative with another brand in the luxury sector. The project is supported by the Prada Group with proceeds from the sales of the Re-Nylon collection created with regenerated nylon and born in 2019 to underline the brand’s commitment to sustainable choices in line with the 2030 Agenda of the United Nations.

The didactic plan

During their long journey across the northern lagoon of Venice, the children saw the red brick facades of the furnaces of Murano and the colorful houses of fishermen’s Burano, the sandbank, that mixture of water and earth where the signs of climate change are visible. From the vaporetto they showed the educators unknown birds, the boats rowed along the deserted canals and abandoned islands. Torcello is the furthest island from the mainland and this is where their adventure began. They arrived without parents. “They already knew the educators that Unesco has selected, because before starting the outdoor lessons we did a series of meetings in the classroom. But we explained to the parents that having them near would distract them and they understood”. water to see it under a microscope, they built fantastic papier-mâché figures before getting back on the vaporetto home.

“Slowly we will help them take possession of the place where they live. Now we want to create a bond with the nature that surrounds them, see the colors of the lagoon and the sandbank. Reclaim the place where they live – explains Francesca Santoro – Then the moment will come questions and will meet those who live on these islands, fishermen, embroiderers, glass masters, we are also trying to organize a rowing lesson among the islands, even the small and uninhabited ones where the damage of climate change on Venice is visible”.

“We will save the oceans from school desks”

So after Torcello for the other 9 lessons they will go, for example, to the island of Vignole, that of the vegetable gardens where for centuries very small and prestigious artichokes have been grown and then to the Lido to see the dunes and the sea. The kindergarten of the lagoon will end its cycle of lessons right in front of the sea. The children will be named ambassadors and spokespersons for the defense of this heritage, while the schools that have participated will join the Blue Schools. “We will save the oceans from school desks, raising a generation of sentinels”, is convinced the regional director of Unesco Thompson-Flores. Given the seriousness with which they spent the day on the island of Torcelo they seem convinced too. The children.