Environmental Brigades at Indiana University is a collaboration of students and Bloomington community members, and our program is about people. We believe everyone is intricately connected in this world, and we can better collaborate to sustainably share this Earth. With this program, traveling volunteers catalyze a change in knowledge and behaviors that represent an important first step to reducing environmental damage. We provide families of the rural community Piriati Embera, Panama, who depend on nature, with the necessary skills and resources to adapt to the surrounding modern development. This March, the members of Environmental Brigades at IU will spend 7 days in Piriati Embera working alongside community members to reduce environmental degradation. Volunteers will explain and incorporate the use of organic fertilizers and pesticides in order to boost soil nutrients naturally, and deter common pests and fungi that normally lower harvest yields. We will incorporate interactive workshops to raise community awareness of relevant issues like recycling and waste management. We will plant native trees and participate in greenhouse construction, helping to increase crop yields.
These projects are ongoing and continued by the many other Environmental Brigades chapters across the United States and Canada. Our mutual, overarching goal is to ensure positive, lasting changes for generations. Our message to everyone who works with Environmental Brigades is that together we can make a difference and improve lives.