“Huellas de Cambio” celebrates the first harvest at the Cumandá Educational Unit in Gualea
Six months after the arrival of Bupa’s Huellas de Cambio program in Ecuador, which allowed the implementation of the TiNi (Land of Girls, Boys and Youth, by its acronym in Spanish) methodology, at the Cumandá single-teacher Educational Unit, students and teachers celebrated the first harvest. There were more than 250 hours of work that made it possible to make the TiNi a reality and turn it into a classroom that contributes to create active empathy for life benefiting the community and the ecosystem.
As an international healthcare company serving more than 43 million customers worldwide with 75 years of experience, Bupa is proud to launch this initiative in Ecuador.
The Association for Children and their Environment (ANIA, by its acronym in Spanish), the MIWA Education and Environmental Awareness Foundation and Bupa returned to the rural parish of Gualea, at the Pichincha province, to celebrate this new classroom with the students, together with the new teacher, Mother Nature. A natural space of 188 square metershas been recovered under the care of students, teachers and the community during the past months. Thanks to the fact that the school is located in one of the richest ecosystems in the country, Huellas de Cambio has allowed students to acquire new knowledge and contribute to the protection of an important natural area for the province and the country.
“We’re proud of the students from Gualea who responsibly created and protected the TiNi in an environment rich in fauna and flora where the humid and Andean forests converge. With this harvest of the Huellas de Cambio program, Bupa reinforces its purpose of helping people have longer, healthier, happier lives and create a better world,” said Leopoldo Báez, General Manager of Bupa Ecuador.
The TiNi methodology, recognized by UNESCO as a best practice in education, at this time has promoted the cognitive, physical, social and emotional process of the students of Gualea. In this way, the methodology is in line with Bupa’s goal of caring for people’s health through environmental conservation that produces positive changes for everyone.
Currently in Ecuador, Bupa contributes with the implementation of TiNi gardens in two schools, the Cumandá Educational Unit and the 24 de Mayo Fiscal School, located in Quito, which late last year inaugurated a TiNi for the first time with 800 students. These two spaces are an example of the commitment of the company and its allies to promote education focused on the protection of the environment and the community.