New year brings a new challenge. At the beginning of 2011 the Hungarian Climate Advocates transformed their regular Tuesday meeting into a serious discussion by holding a second expert panel meeting to confer about progress on their educational Clime-mates project. This was the second of these panel meetings with 6 experts of their field invited such as kindergartner teachers, a story-writer, development educational specialists and university staff.

This, the final period of the Hungarian British Council Climate Advocates, will be action packed and bursting with interesting activities with the Clime-mates project which is NOW in the focus more than has ever been in the last 8 months. Advocates will continue to put all their efforts into this educational project with the objective to teach children between the age of 5 and 9 about climate change in a fun, entertaining way. This will be achieved using imaginative short stories with colourful illustrations to introduce “The Clime-mates” characters. These small, friendly creatures will be brought to life by the painting and creative writing skills of our talented advocates. The first topic covered will be that of household waste with each clime-mate character linked to a particular kind of waste (paper, plastic, bottles, metal, organic waste) to capture the young audiences’ imagination. These clime-mates stories will hopefully convey the main message of selective waste collection and will include suggestions for supporting activities.

During their regular weekly meetings, the Climate Advocates organised this, the second of their expert panels, to discuss the development of project with psychologists, kindergarten teachers, university staff and story-tellers. These experts who all had experience in the field of children education, were very enthusiastic about the project and contributed to the debate by giving their opinions and critical feedback of the stories and illustrations. During the lengthy but successful meeting, the advocates and experts exchanged lots of ideas and valuable thoughts on the content, structure, wording, message and perception of the draft stories and illustrations.
Climate Advocates particularly sought advice from the panel on how these stories and activities will help the target specific age groups, and how each age group will perceive the information being channeled about selective waste management. The panel also explored the possibilities for the supporting activities designed to run along side the stories. The meeting was deemed a great success, serving its purpose to make sure the project is on the right track and heading in the right direction. “Notwithstanding the critics that were discussed and the changes that have been recommended, this Clime-mates project is an excellent and unique initiative in the field of kindergarten education.” – added Ms. Ilona Krekó, a university doctorate from the panel. Later that same week, the eager Climate Advocates gathered again to make a decision on how best to implement the panel’s recommendations and make sure that none of their opinions were wasted!

The Advocates plan to launch the pilot climate project within the next 2 months in a few kindergartens in Budapest. The advocates already have a few kindergartens on board who have expressed an interest in the project and are keen to participate in this unique educational climate programme. The Hungarian Advocates are taking this last of their projects very seriously and are glad that their final challenge looks set to be success. If you are interested in what the Clime-mates look like and would be interested in reading one of the fascinating stories in English, you will soon get the chance as more information about this project will be released in the second half of March.