Online exchange and interaction between young people around the world is now a part of our daily lives, but how do we incorporate this into our education system? Conectando Mundos (Connecting Worlds) has been doing so since 2003.

Developed by OXFAM Intermón, the programme is a truly global online educational proposal that combines classroom activities with networking among students aged between 6 to 17 from different cultural, economic and social realities that attend school centres all over the world.

Students interact and work through an online multilingual platform available in seven languages (Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, English, Galician, Catalan and Basque). The work is carried out in a participatory manner in working teams of the same age range.

Each year tackles a specific issue related to the education for global citizenship plan – such as labour standards, climate change or poverty – and there is a different educational proposal for each age group. For instance, the 2020-2021 edition focuses on Climate Crisis: Time to Act.

Understanding the relationship between the inequality of greenhouse gas emissions on one hand, and vulnerability to face the climate crisis on the other, is essential if we want to slow down and mitigate its impact, preventing those living in poverty from being affected disproportionately and ensuring a fair and sustainable lifestyle for everyone and for the planet.

With this proposal, Oxfam aims to give students clues which will help them understand the climate crisis issue from environmental and social perspectives, offering tools for critical analysis and for transforming social actions. At the same time, they want to offer constructive alternatives voiced by the feminist movement, the youth and the Indigenous peoples, which can help guide the transition towards more eco-friendly and fairer economic solutions.

The initiative lasts 12 weeks and aims to foster intercultural dialogue among diverse students for cooperative working through the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), which enables mutual knowledge, sharing diverse realities and discovering common problems – based on the motto, ‘Think globally, act locally’.

AtlasAction: If you are a teacher, register your school and class-group for the 2020-2021 edition. Get in contact here for project donations, volunteering or collaborations.

Project coordinator, Oxfam Intermon Education Team