The program "Sea is LIfe" by HELMEPA Jr
The United Nations has declared the decade 2021-2030 as the "Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development", to enhance the sustainable management of oceans and coasts for the benefit of humanity. Through the cooperation and exchange of know-how of all actors related to the sea, this decade will act as a tool to achieve the 2030 agenda for sustainable development.
In this context, education about the seas and oceans and the understanding of the interaction between Man and the Sea (Ocean Literacy) are expected to play a key role. Since 1993, HELMEPA has been offering the educational community the environmental program "Children's HELMEPA" to inform and activate children aged 5-12 years in Greece about the marine environment and the environment in general, through the voluntary guidance of their teachers.
The aim of this year's program entitled "The sea is life" (η θάλασσα είναι ζωή) is to enhance the knowledge of the educational community about the oceans, to encourage them to take an active role at an individual and collective level to achieve Goal 14: "Life below the surface of the sea" for sustainable development and to highlight the interaction between man and the sea.
Climate change, pollution, overfishing, and other environmental challenges require immediate solutions and we all need to show by our actions what future we want for future generations and what state the seas and oceans need to be in to support this future.
Our first activities
In the first stage of the "The sea is life" program, the students of the 5th grade had an interesting online discussion with Mr. D. Kazas in charge of the HELMEPA junior organization, about marine ecosystems, the risks they face, and the need to protect them.
Then they searched for information and created posters about the types of marine ecosystems that exist on our planet (6 types in total), made a board game about marine biodiversity, played a group game on the subject "marine life threats", and made posters about the protection of the seas.
