Sonora - pag. 8

Note by Denisse Sugey López Moroyoqui* Photos by Dulce García Casarrubias**
In September 2012, even before the construction was finished on the newest campus in Sonora's Cobach high school system students had already started the Cobach 3 Ecology Club (E-Cobach 3). Everything began like a dream for the youth, because their driving force, instructor Susana Sánchez Barba, had discovered the Cajeme Nursery more than a year before and had begun an educational collaboration with the manager, Saúl López.	The first students began work in September.

Neem seedlings are the basis of the reforestation.	Lovers of nature, and concerned about its deterioration, López talks to the club’s youth and teaches them about about the importance of taking care of nature and not doing any more harm to it, while Sánchez is ever attentive to the students. Each day they show students how new plants reproduce and the care required for them to bear fruit.

With the tasks assigned by López, there are already more than 1,200 new neem trees (Azadirachta indica in Latin). This species is resistant to periods of dry, hot weather and has multiple uses ranging from medicinal treatments to enrichment of farmlands. Following their success, the club members appeared for two consecutive weeks on the television program Entre Amigas (Between Friends), where they gave advice and taught how to transplant seedlings.

Enthusiastic, club members pose for the camera.	Videographer and actors captured by same camera.

Next, they began a period of sharing what they’d learned with children at a kindergarten. Their intention was to teach them that nature is beautiful and that it needs care.	A group of students meets with the kindergarten’s director.

Personalizing the seedling pots.	Club members have the children make a nose, eyelashes and a mouth on the pot so the grass they sow will grow out as small green hairs.

During Science and Technology Week 2012, club members taught other about the techniques for creating home made and eco-friendly fertilizers and pesticides from the neem tree.	Project leaders supervise the students, whose numbers continue to grow.

They have attracted many new students who show up each day to work and learn. There are already more than 24 students who are expectant that everything will turn out well.
Member of E-Cobach 3 Project *Teacher in Charge of E-Cobach 3 Project