User:Onetotrees/123s - One to Trees

123s - One to Trees
123s is the symbol used by One to Trees, an Ecologial Education Non-Profit Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) started in August 2006 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, presently having projects running in Nova Friburgo and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and Kimana (Kenya).

Vision
123s' vision is to live in a planet where human beings and environment are seem as one, developing this relationship since early childhood, in schools that teach not a single "environmental" subject, but all tradition school subjects from an environmental point of view.

Mission
123s' mission is to foster the use of natural resources in a conscious, efficient and sustainable way, in order to make the Earth a peaceful, prosperous and life-sustaining place.

123s by 123s
123s defines itself as "a growing group of scientists, entrepreneurs, teachers, communities and organizations, directing the creation of efficient work, health and abundance, with an interest in protecting both nature and the profits of our investors."

This means 123s promote an understanding of "economy" as not-incompatible with "ecology": to prosper in a long-term way, 123s defends that any company needs to think about ecology, calling attention to the etymology of such words: eco-logy means the study (logy) of the house (eco) and eco-nomy means the management (nomy) of the house (eco); in this sense, economy could be seen as a sub-discipline of ecology, because to "manage the house" it would be necessary to first "study the house".

Global Warming
123s faces Global Warming as an opportunity to cultivate actions based on ideals of unity. Not as something bad or good on itself, but simply as an opportunity to re-thin ideas, as for instance, our idea of "economy", "school" or "education".

Adopt a Teacher program
123s main Project is the Adopt a Teacher program, promoting an environmental review of traditional school subjects in Brazil and Kenya, each project covering one traditional school subject, reviewed by an environmental point of view.

Seeder-Teacher Grant
123s started a the "Seeder-Teacher Grant", to stimulate new ecological-review projects on all traditional school subjects. Each project is called "Project of Union", understanding by union the capacity to unite a traditional school subject to an environmental point of view.

By environmental point of view, 123s understands not only "talking about the environment" or "planting trees", but mainly to have as practical lessons as theoretical and to build bridges from one traditional subject to all others, one subject not being isolated as an island, but always as peninsula, always with a road to the continent of meeting all subjects.

All projects involve at least a teacher (seeder), a sponsor (sun) and a school (greenhouse); the names between brackets are part of 123s terminology, intending to include nature into its core concepts.

All projects start as "idea-seeds", while the proposal is being developed, become "sprouts" when they started happening at a specific place and aim to become "trees", when the projects are self-sustainable in terms of funding and with a structured mentorship that don't need anymore the presence of teacher who started watering the project.

Projects of Union
123s has already thought of many idea-seeds for projects of union, but only the following already reached the status of "sprouts". The sprouts have monthly reports, that 123s publishes online on 123s Blog.
 * bodyECOLogy: Ecological Physical Education through Dance and Self-Conscience
 * ECOnscience: Science and Health Programs with the Environment and not the Human as central focus
 * AME (Awakening Martial Ecology): a Vocational Guidance Class, mixing Psychology, Ecology and Martial Arts
 * recyclART: using or reusing recycled material to create Art and artistic goods
 * rePCycling: Informatics class using old computers to build new ones, and learning free tools (linux, google, wiki, etc).

123s Language
All 123s terminology intends to promote the union between mankind and nature that the NGO envisions. Examples are:
 * idea-seed: every project of 123s starts as an idea-seed, for 123s aims to plant not only trees, but also ideas of union, that, according to the NGO, can only develop the same way as seeds develop into trees.
 * seeder-teacher: the teacher that starts an idea-seed with 123s, aiming to plant this environmental idea into a school or community receptive to it, where the seed can develop itself as sprout, aiming to become a self-sufficient tree.
 * sun-sponsor: the donator that sponsors a project of union, that, as the sun, sends enough financial-energy for the development of a project
 * greenhouse-school: every school that receives a project of union is treated as a greenhouse, where the idea-seeds develop into sprouts, being watered by a seeder-teacher and nurtured by a sun-sponsor, until the roots are strong enough to make a tree be born.