Ahead of the International Day of Education, UNESCO and Prada Group announced the 3rd edition of their SEA BEYOND educational program dedicated to the dissemination of ocean literacy and ocean preservation. More than 34,000 students in 56 countries will benefit from this training this year. This new chapter will also be marked by a new partnership with Bibliothèques Sans Frontières (Libraries without Borders).
Third edition of SEA BEYOND educational program
34,385 students from 184 secondary schools across 56 countries will benefit from the SEA BEYOND’s training this year, which will focus on the interrelation between the ocean and climate, and the associated environmental challenges. It will offer ocean literacy training sessions for students and teachers and include live lessons with UNESCO ocean and climate experts. The programme will run from January to June 2024 and end with an international contest, as per the previous editions.
UNESCO and Prada Group will launch a contest inviting schools to create an awareness campaign with text, graphics or interactive content, with the aim to explain to their peers how to adopt more conscious behaviours to preserve the ocean. The jury evaluating the campaigns will be composed of new and pre-established SEA BEYOND “friends”, the so-called SEA BEYONDers, people who have placed a love for the ocean at the centre of their personal and professional lives.
Partnership with Bibliothèques Sans Frontières (Libraries without Borders)
This new partnership with the international non-profit organization Bibliothèques Sans Frontières aims to facilitate access to ocean education for children and young citizens in vulnerable communities through the Ideas Box, a mobile multimedia centre of over 100 square meters including internet connection, tablets, laptops and over 250 books and games, as well as hundreds of training materials.
The Ideas Box concept was initially developed by French designer Philippe Starck for Bibliothèques Sans Frontières back in 2014 and today 115 communities all over the world benefit from it.
This partnership will allow, from June 2024, the first SEA BEYOND-dedicated Ideas Box focused on ocean education, which will be presented in Venice on International Ocean Day. It will be based in Naples and managed by Fondazione Quartieri Spagnoli. It will then travel across Italy.
Moreover, contents related to ocean literacy prepared by UNESCO experts, will be integrated into pre-existing Ideas Boxes in France, Burundi and the Ivory Coast. UNESCO’s experts will also be in charge of training the local teams running the Ideas Boxes and accompanying the children using them.