ECOLOGICAL BANK PROJECT
“Year of unity, peace and development”
My name is Diego Armando Patiño Ramos; Assistant Director of primary school of I.E. Fe y Alegria N° 68 – directed by the Congregation of Missionary Dominican Sisters of the Rosary.
Through this opportunity, I am pleased to share with you my experience with the “Ecological Bank” project. This project was born from a report that I saw several years ago of a student who proposed this similar concept in the city of Arrequipa. And so, I decided to apply it in the Educational Institution where I work modifying it to the reality of our context. So, the “Ecological Bank” Project was born, whose two main pillars are the care of the environment through recycling and generating a culture of saving in the students.
In this project, students are encouraged to recycle bottles and papers, for which, when they bring them to the institution, these items are weighed, and a corresponding payment is made. The amount gained is then transferred to a personal or classroom account of each student. Where at the same time, at the end of the year, they can withdraw the money they have managed to save through their recycling. It is explained to the students that the payments in their respective accounts vary depending on the price of the products in their seasons and that they should put their savings to good use when withdrawing it.
From my experience, consideration has been given to budgeting a small amount of money that may be available for any need that may exist in the institution. Thus, with the minimum balance that may be left over from the project, we have been able to acquire a soccer table so that the students have something to play with in their free time. In addition to this, we were also able to support the purchase of t-shirts for the elementary school volleyball team.
In this way, it is proven that the project in question, which is just one year old, has been successful. The purpose of this project is after all, to raise awareness among the students and at the same time to give something back to our institution despite that it involves a great effort of organization, weighing, control and administration. But the greatest gratification is to see the satisfaction of each student in taking care, saving and supporting their school.
San Clemente, June 2023
