AIR BRIDGE FRANKFURT - COSTA RICA

Education connects continents

Transformation towards a sustainable world is a shared task – across continents

With the “Airlift Frankfurt – Costa Rica” project, we are taking our educational work to a new level: schools from Frankfurt and Costa Rica are entering into a creative, intercultural exchange. The aim is to promote mutual understanding and protect the rainforest in the long term. Through this exchange, children and young people become active shapers of change towards a just, solidary and sustainable world. In this way, global learning becomes a tangible experience – and rainforest protection becomes a shared task across continents.

Rainforest protection starts in the classroom

Our educational mission is enshrined in our statutes – and comes to life here. Children and young people from both countries talk about their everyday lives: What does our breakfast look like? How do we get to school? What grows in our schoolyard? The topics are relevant to everyday life and the learning effect is great.

Global exchange enables young people to see the world from new perspectives and develop a deeper understanding of other cultures, ways of life and challenges. It promotes empathy, strengthens intercultural competence and shows that many global problems – such as climate change or the protection of the rainforest – can only be solved together. Personal encounters, whether direct or digital, motivate learning, create solidarity and raise awareness of global responsibility.

Pupils are proud of their planted forest

The little howler monkeys can be heard throughout the valley. But it's a peaceful roar and they're just showing off: This delicious tree is already occupied by us. So you don't have to fight!

The Monte Alto Lodge is very simple but located in the middle of the reforested forest. You almost sleep in the treetops.

Project manager Miguel Mendez with the healthy saplings from a tree nursery in Monte Alto

The tamandua (small anteater) in search of its favorite food

Forest engineer Victor Esquivel catalogs and evaluates the growth of the reforestation on Finca Alicia

Real encounters – digital, creative & at eye level

Frankfurt school classes meet children and teachers from Costa Rica. The event kicked off with a rainforest show featuring impressive images and stories straight from the rainforest. This was followed by a discovery rally in the Palmengarten in Frankfurt, where the pupils explored where their food comes from and how it is connected to the rainforest. The exchange between the schools will take place via video diaries due to the time difference.

Educational work with a lasting impact

The children are enthusiastic – about the diversity of cultures, the unfamiliar everyday routines and the exciting similarities. For example, many Costa Rican students were surprised to learn how often cornflakes are on the breakfast table in Germany. In Frankfurt, they were amazed by gallo pinto, the traditional hot breakfast in Costa Rica made from rice and beans.

Tree seeds first had to be laboriously collected in the forest and germinated before trees could be grown in the nursery

Stefan Rother, Alexis Obregon & Miguel Méndez (from left) with camera trap in Monte Alto © Víctor Esquivel

The airlift is growing

The “Airlift” is constantly evolving: new questions, new stories and new ideas emerge in every exchange. New formats emerge from the ideas of the participants, are tested together and flexibly adapted to the needs of the children, teachers and social change. In this way, the Airlift remains not just a project, but a growing network of global learning – with the aim of building bridges that last.

EDUCATIONAL MATERIAL FOR DOWNLOAD

Supported by ENGAGEMENT GLOBAL

with funds from the

Note: The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of Tropica Verde e.V. – Verein zum Schutz tropischer Lebensräume; the positions expressed herein do not reflect the views of ENGAGEMENT GLOBAL or the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

WHAT DOES TROPICA VERDE DO?

In 2024, Tropica Verde conceived the Frankfurt-Costa Rica Airlift project and submitted it to Engagement Global for financial support. Of course, this is only possible with the association’s own contribution. The concept envisages schools from Frankfurt and Costa Rica getting to know each other and reporting on their everyday lives, for example.
Educational materials are exchanged globally. Children in Germany learn about the realities of life in Costa Rica and vice versa.
In Germany, the Pestalozzi School in Riederwald and the IGS Nordend are two committed environmental schools. In Costa Rica, schools from our Monte Alto project region are taking part. The time difference is bridged with video diaries – so the children get to know faces, stories and living environments.
We have also been providing environmental education in schools in Germany for a long time. First and foremost, IGS Nordend in Frankfurt has been actively supporting us for many years. Thanks to the commitment of IGS Nordend, large areas have already been reforested in various Tropica Verde projects in Costa Rica and educational measures have been expanded on site. One example of this is the Finca Alicia in Monte Alto, where there is an “IGS hectare”.
In Monte Alto, Tropica Verde has been supporting environmental education activities for many years through visits to the surrounding schools and excursions by pupils to the protected area. Every year, training courses on respectful interaction with nature, river clean-up campaigns, animal identification courses and much more are held. A training center in the Reserva also enables further training in the middle of nature. The principles of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) are important to us.
To link the Costa Rica-wide environmental education activities of our local partner organizations, Tropica Verde 2024 has also set up a Cross-project educational network was launched. Education Network Coordinator Mónica will be an important contact person in the Airlift project.

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