Give Children a Safer and Happier Childhood

Dear friend, 

We had a very nice summer in Minga Valpo, with a lot of activities for the children of Concon. This first part of the year we have been focused on collaborating with teachers of kindergartens, to develop green areas for the kids. We’ve worked with Mauquitos and Conconcito, both kindergartens have been developing environmental programs to educate children.

Chile had one of the largest closed schools policies due to the pandemic. Because of this, many green areas inside the schools and other public spaces were lost. But since last year we have been working with different educational establishments, focused on enabling school gardens. This is very important as an educational tool for the teachers, and also contributes to the mental health of the child. 

In the past months we have been able to enable two orchards, with the collaboration of childrens and teachers. Conconcito kindergarten receives 136 childrens, while Mauquitos kindergarten has 52 students. Both establishments work with childrens between 0 to 5 years old. 

On the other hand, we have been doing weekly workshops for children, focused on learning english through art, games and sharing with others. These activities took place in the Minga Valpo greenhouse, a safe and quiet place to learn and play.

For the next months we will continue the collaboration with educational establishments, to help the development of environmental consciousness in early childhood. We hope to grow more school gardens and green areas in the Valparaíso region. Now we are preparing for the winter, with new harvests and learning experiences.

Regards,

Dear friend, 

In the last part of the year, we colaborate with a new project for Mauquitos kindergarden in Concón, in Valparaíso region. A group of students from Viña del Mar University develop the idea for the children and teachers to have a clean and safe space for learning and play outdoors. Is very important for the children being able to go out and learn in contact with nature, so they can grow in harmony with the enviroment and know how to take care of it.

The main idea of this project is to recover this space that was lost due to the pandemic period and the schools clausure. The Mauquitos kindergarden recieve around 52 children from Concón, from 3 months of age to 4 year old children. Learning about enviromental care and nature is considered in the educational program of public kindergardens, but this institution didn't have it in good conditions for children's use. So this group of students contact us to colaborate in the rehabilitation of this orchard. 

We create a fun activity with volunteers and the students, to install a composter and start learning how to reuse the organic waste. To make it more understandable for kids, we prepared a story called 'Breatriz the worm' and teachers read it before setting the composter. Later, we learnt wich wastes could go inside the composter and how it works. 

To finish the activity, we went out with techears, volunteers and childrens to plant lettuce, tomato, celery, chard and other especies. Also, we plant onions and peppers in seedlings, so the children could learn the entire process from the seed to the food in their plates. This is a fundamental part of 'learning by doing' methods, because the children have the possibility to watch and experience the hole process. 

We are very grateful for this invitation, and hope to keep colaborating with this and others kindergardens. The contact with nature and the enviromental conciusness es very important for children learning and growing process. This space is now equipped with a vermicomposter, a composter, a greenhouse and four grow boxes, so the children and the teachers can enjoy their outdoor classroom. 

Regards,