Estimados alumnos, padres, personal de nuestras academias, amigos, colaboradores, sponsors, instituciones públicas y privadas, en definitiva, todos aquellos que os habéis involucrado de una manera o de otra en este proyecto tan bonito, The Language of the Sea: enseñando Valores a través de los Idiomas.

El pasado 3 de abril nos comunicaron que éramos finalistas en los premios otorgados por la Semana Europea de Prevención y Reducción de Residuos (EWWR) junto a otras dos estupendas iniciativas, una catalana y otra alemana, en la categoría NGOs/Asociaciones. Como os comentamos, solo el hecho de ser finalistas ya era un premio en sí, que entendemos no era del proyecto sino de TODOS VOSOTROS, al igual que los premios obtenidos hasta la fecha.

Y por fin el jueves 25 de junio, en una ceremonia celebrada por videoconferencia, debido a la situación actual a nivel mundial, pero no por ello menos importante y emotiva, este proyecto tan bonito consiguió alzarse con el Primer Premio.

Gracias por compartirlo en las aulas, por acompañarnos en la limpieza de las playas, por vuestros gestos responsables en el día a día, gracias por confiar y dar voz al proyecto.

Por último seguir animándoos a todos a continuar compartiendo el lenguaje de la naturaleza que tanta satisfacción y orgullo nos está proporcionando y que además no entiende de fronteras.

¡¡¡Muchísimas gracias a todos!!!

En el siguiente enlace encontrarás el video de la ceremonia de entrega de los premios:

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/recording/789288128480251649

Y a continuación os transcribimos la nota de prensa emitida por la organización:

THE LANGUAGE OF THE SEA PROJECT, WINNER OF THE EUROPEAN WEEKLY REDUCTION AWARDS (EWWR) The Language of the Sea project was awarded the NGO / associations award for the European Week for Waste Reduction (EWWR), among more than 16,500 actions presented for “visibility, quality of content, originality and impact of the action that stood out from other the organizations.

Piotr Barczak, from the European Environmental Bureau – EEB, was in charge of announcing the award and highlighted how the project was able to transfer “the language of the sea to students in an educational project lasting more than a year”. The European organization also pointed out how this initiative, promoted by the associations of language schools in Northern Spain: ACEIAS in Asturias, ACEIGA in Galicia, ACCEI in Cantabria and ACIE from the Basque Country has involved thousands of participating students who learned, inside and outside the classroom, about waste prevention and environmental sustainability by tuning into the language of nature .

Premio EWWR 2019

During the presentation of the project at the gala, Scott Markham, spokesperson for the project, highlighted the scope of this initiative “with more than 70 schools in Northern Spain involved, with more than 10,000 students becoming aware of the serious problem of plastic in our seas” . Likewise, he summarised some of the most important activities that took place at The Language of the Sea, such as the simultaneous clean-up of 5 different beaches spread across the north coast of Spain with almost 2,000 volunteers where 6 tons of waste were collected. The project also had the support of national and international stars, and public and private entities from the educational, sports, and media sectors. Another major event was the premiere in Asturias of the short film that brought together more than a thousand people.

The Language of the Sea Project competed within the Association / NGO section against the “Coole Suppe” Short Film Festival for a sustainable food culture, implemented by Kommunikation und Medien eV, Germany and the # elmenjarnoesllença (#nowastingfood) Award: Search for heroes and heroines of food waste. Reduction, implemented by the Espigoladors Foundation, Catalonia, Spain.

This award is yet another one received by the project including the Special Award for Corporate Social Responsibility granted by the Spanish Federation of Language Teaching Centres, FECEI, in collaboration with the Association of Autonomous Centres for Private Teaching (ACADE), which recognizes the work of environmental awareness developed in the language centers. Recently the project also received a second prize that recognizes The Language of the Sea as one of the best collective initiatives in favor of the environment.

The Language of the Sea project continues its journey by transmitting these values of environmental sustainability not only in the classrooms of the schools of the four autonomous communities involved, but reaching the rest of society through actions such as The Language of the Trees with tree planting in special forests.