The Mirpuri Foundation hosted an interactive workshop on ocean sustainability with young sailors from the organization’s sailing academy at Clube Naval de Cascais.
The Summer Course program, educational as well as fun, aims to educate children towards the importance of conserving our planet. The lesson kicked off with a reflection on the important role the ocean plays for life on earth. Unfortunately, the sea is now highly polluted due to our “disposable lifestyle” and the young sailors were challenged to rethink their actions while learning how to become active agents for change. Young sailors learned about the serious pollution problems now arising from the often single use of plastic items – on display, not only in Portugal but across the world.
The children were given the chance to examine alternative products such as bamboo toothbrushes and cutlery, which were shown as the children offered their own ideas for possible substitute materials.
They were also given information on how plastics begin to break down into microplastics over the years, and they were shown how these tiny polluting particles are fed into the oceans and spread around the planet. The Foundation believes that new generations hold the power to make the world a better place but that older generations and corporations have the responsibility to guide them through such a mission.
With this in mind, the Mirpuri Foundation Sailing Academy aims to raise not only great athletes but also great citizens capable of being part of the solution instead of the problem.
