Afgerond
Plastic Footprint Change Agents, with UNICEF
Twenty young Change Agents from four districts ran workshops in schools and community groups on cutting single-use plastic, as part of UNICEF's Plastic Footprint Suriname project.
- Wanneer
- 2022 – februari 2026
- Waar
- Schools and community groups in four districts
The cooperation between Forest93 and UNICEF started in 2022, a year after UNICEF launched the Plastic Footprint Suriname project. The project helps young people take climate action by reducing the footprints that drive climate change, especially their plastic footprint.
The activities, coordinated by Forest93 Ambassador Christio Wijnhard, encourage climate-friendly behaviour through active sessions in schools and community groups. The Plastic Footprint Change Agents, a group of 20 young people aged 18 to 25 from four districts, were trained in climate change, the environment and plastics, and developed their own awareness materials for their workshops. Posters went to schools throughout the country, and a billboard featuring some of the Change Agents themselves went up in Paramaribo.
Both primary and middle schools took part, as did groups that are often left out, such as the Kennedy Stichting for children with a hearing impairment and LGBT youth. The Change Agents organised 26 awareness sessions and visited 18 schools across four districts.
The workshops are built around the five Rs: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose and Recycle. Participants can win reusable drinking bottles, reusable shopping bags or bamboo toothbrushes. By January 2024, more than 1,050 people were expected to have taken part directly in an awareness activity.
In 2025 the programme entered a second phase, shifting from running sessions to building a generation that can run them without us: a new climate-change module, agents trained as trainers, and an advocacy training so that young people can argue for climate action as well as explain it. Sixteen agents were certified by February 2026, and the materials for a fully youth-led Plastic Footprint Suriname are now in their hands.
Hoe het verliep
A second phase: training the trainers
The programme was expanded and strengthened. A new climate-change module was added to the nine-module curriculum, and existing Plastic Footprint Agents were trained as trainers so that the knowledge could reach more young people and more schools. The project also developed a model for follow-up school visits, allowing trained agents to bring the programme directly into schools and communities.
Sixteen certified agents, and a youth-led future
By the end of the second phase, 16 Plastic Footprint Agents had been certified, including eight new agents and four trained to deliver the programme themselves. The young people also strengthened their ability to advocate for climate action through an advocacy training supported by UNICEF. The programme has now concluded, with materials developed for a next phase focused on a fully youth-led PFS model. They are reachable via https://plasticfootprintsuriname.org for information sessions for businesses, schools or organisations.
Betrokkenen
De ambassadeurs die aan dit project werkten, en wat ieder van hen deed.
Christio Wijnhard
Coordinator
Coordinated the Forest93 activities with the Plastic Footprint Change Agents, who ran 26 awareness sessions and visited 18 primary and middle schools across 4 districts.
