The volunteers came in two separate groups, each one staying in Tramonti for four weeks. The participating organizations were Solidarity Tracks (Greece), Aventura Marao Clube (Portugal), ATA (Romania), IMAGINA (Spain, Malaga), Cocat (Spain, Barcelona), ExpoItaly (Italy), and Acarbio (Italy).

The topic of the project was sustainability and all activities aligned to the goal of raising awareness amongst the participants as well as the inhabitants of Tramonti. The Make it Blue team, as we called the volunteers, did a great job cleaning paths from trash, making abandoned paths accessible again by cleaning overgrown plants, painting dirty walls, and spreading good mood among the local people.

The first group of volunteers, which was in Tramonti from July 15 to August 10, had workshops on the importance of water pollution and saving water. They also painted signs and hung them all over Tramonti to make the inhabitants aware of the waste pollution and to motivate them to get rid of their trash in a sustainable way. A big project of Group 1 was the painting of the mural in the main square in Polvica. Joana Torgal, a participant of the project and artist, designed the wall painting and led the group of volunteers. The result is a beautifully made collage of paintings that represent the every-day life of the people of Tramonti. From the tomato plants, pizza makers and lemon trees, to the churches of Tramonti – all is included in the mural. Before their departure, the mayor of Tramonti, Domenico Amatruda, invited the participants and thanked them for their engagement and good work.

The second group of young people arrived on August 11 and stayed until September 06. They were very motivated and cleaned some areas from the trash. Additionally to the cleaning, they analysed the collected waste in a workshop; included activities were the counting of the different types of waste (cans, bottles, cigarette buts, paper napkins etc.) and research about their degradation time. Other activities involved painting of dirty walls and clearing an abandoned path from overgrown plants. Unfortunately, we had a Covid case and half of the time was spent in quarantine. Although many activities could not be realized, the volunteers still managed to stay positive and do the very best with the given situation. During quarantine, a group of them finished an art piece made from trash.

In the evenings we organized international nights. Participants from each country prepared an evening where they cooked traditional dishes, talked about their culture and country, showed the others typical music and dances and had a lot of fun.

In their free time, the young people had many opportunities to explore the area of the region of Campania. They visited Naples, Pompeii, the island of Capri, Amalfi, Positano and many other beautiful towns on the Amalfi Coast.

During their time in Tramonti, the volunteers learned a lot. Not only were they able to become more aware of environmental issues and gain an understanding for how to contribute to the solving of them. As they lived in an international community and had to cook for themselves, they learned how to communicate their own needs and work out problems, how to manage cooking for many people and how to minimize food waste and use up groceries. The second group of volunteers experienced community-life on a whole different level, as they spent some days of quarantine together with people from many different countries and cultures. With a great amount of creativity and patience they made the best out of it and gained lots of knowledge and experience. The participants also got to know many different cultures, dishes, and languages.

Outcomes of the project:

• Video Group 1
• Video Group 2
• Article Barbara
• Article Alberto
• Article Guillermo
• Article Mariana, Laia, Konstantina

The project: what is Make it Blue?

Make it Blue is an environmental project about the preservation and enhancement of maritime resources which aims to keep the public beaches always clean and accessible to everybody. It is a place where environmental education takes place thanks to the help provided by young international volunteers who devote their time to citizens and tourists. Every day the volunteers take care of the beach, cleaning it, going around with a special pedal boat to sweep the sea and keep the water clean, and they also organize multilingual environmental workshops for children and teenagers 6 times per week.

Where and how?

The project has been going on for four years, since 2015, every summer in the public beach of Minori, in Amalfi Coast (South Italy) and it is organized by ACARBIO in collaboration with the municipality of Minori and YAP ITALIA (Youth Action for Peace). During this project, a group of 10 young people from different countries live, eat and sleep in the public school of Minori for 2 weeks. Normally, each project hosts 4 workcamps, which means around 40 people in total.  With this, young people have the opportunity to help the environment, while enjoying the Amalfi coast and experiencing Italy. Among the volunteers there are camp leaders, selected and possibly trained from YAP in organizing, guiding and connecting the group.

Daily activities and Flashmob

Our Make it Blue team is involved in cleaning the free access beaches of Minori 4 times per day, this means that they go around picking up the trash that is left by the visitors, separating it in plastic, paper, glass or mixed. The most common element that is found are the cigarette butts, which in the 2018 edition, arose to 9.000 pieces. With this situation, the volunteers prepared flashmobs to show the visitors and the inhabitants of Minori the pollution on the beaches.

In previous editions of the project, the team had a pedal boat, which was used two times per day, to catch the trash that was floating around in the water, with the help of some nets. This action helped to prevent fish and sea birds from eating plastic.

In addition to the cleaning done on the sand and in the water, the team held from 10 am to 12 pm, environmental workshop for kids, which attracted around a dozen of kids every day, who learned to identify the trash and recycle in a proper way, to name different sea animals and classify them, to know how to count or say their age in different languages, and practice their English by interactive games under the Make it Blue tent.

The importance of raising environmental awareness

With this project we are aiming to raise awareness of the situation present in thebeaches of Minori, to all the people who visit the town and the volunteers that participate in it. We hope that every year, after the project ends, there is a feeling among the participants that we have helped the planet and made people reflect on their actions. We would be delighted to see this project expanding to other parts of the world, and together make the sea blue again!

Follow this project on: https://www.facebook.com/MakeitBlueAcarbio

More information on:
ACARBIO https://facebook.com/acarbio.onlus
Yap Italia  https://yap.it/
Comune di Minori  http://www.comune.minori.sa.it/hh/index.php

La spiaggia libera diventa così un luogo di condivisione anche delle diverse attività svolte durante tutto l’anno da chi si occupa di questo territorio.

I cittadini si riappropriano così di un luogo pubblico e gratuito per tutti. I volontari, facilmente identificabili con una pettorina blu e la scritta “Make it blue”, ogni giorno dalle ore 8 fino al tramonto, sorvegliano e controllano la pulizia della spiaggia. Con un pedalò spazzamare, assicurano poi anche la pulizia del tratto di mare. Così come del lungomare e del centro storico. Un “laboratorio ambientale” per i più piccoli (dal martedì alla domenica, dalle ore 10 alle 12) sensibilizza su temi che riguardano l’ambiente e la sostenibilità ambientale, con giochi, disegni, immagini. Il workcamp di “Make it Blue” è stato anche selezionato da CCIVS (Coordinating Committee for International Voluntary Service) con il supporto di Erasmus+, per “Volunteer Path”. Il compito è anche quello di svolgere una ricerca sull’impatto del volontariato internazionale sulle comunità, il patrimonio e i volontari stessi. I volontari – quasi tutti studenti universitari – hanno ricevuto un questionario. Alla fine del progetto, un video racconterà cosa hanno fatto e imparato in questo lembo di Costiera amalfitana che cerca di diventare un vero modello di “turismo sostenibile”.

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Altre info (foto e video) sulla pagina Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MakeitBlueAcarbio/

sul profilo Instagram: www.instagram.com/acarbio

o scriveteci un e-mai per ulteriori informazioni e collaborazioni su staff@riservabiosferacostiera.org

#spiaggialiberadiminori #makeitblue