NEWS

Naples, September 10^th, 2024 - The importance of disseminating the principles of Ocean Literacy to explore the relationship between Ocean and climate, and deal with the related environmental challenges, is what brought the first SEA BEYOND Ideas Box to the city of Naples, a city which has played a vital role in the Mediterranean Sea for centuries.

A mobile multimedia center created by Biblioteche Senza Frontiere, a non-profit organization that works to enable access to information, education and cultural resources for children and young people in vulnerable communities, with the support of SEA BEYOND, with the goal of raising awareness of sustainability and ocean preservation. 

The mobile multimedia center has now been delivered to FOQUS - Fondazione Quartieri Spagnoli, which will install it on their premises. The SEA BEYOND Ideas Box - of more than 100 square meters - is equipped with 15 tablets and e-readers, 10 PCs, 250 books, board games, video games, VR headsets, headphones, consoles, an audiovisual module and hundreds of educational materials designed to familiarize new generations with the sea, its health and the importance of taking care of it.

The presentation ceremony, which took place at FOQUS - Fondazione Quartieri Spagnoli was attended by Rachele Furfaro, President of FOQUS, Francesca Santoro, UNESCO-IOC Senior Program Officer, Ilaria Gaudiello, Director of Biblioteche Senza Frontiere and Lynda Attias, Operations Director of Bibliothèque Sans Frontière.

Lorenzo Bertelli, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility of the Prada Group and Executive Director, Patron of the Ocean Decade Alliance, and Philippe Starck introduced the event with a video message.

 At the end of the event, wo of the SEA BEYOND project ambassadors, known as SEA BEYONDers, Carmelo Isgrò (Founder and Director of the MuMa Museo del Mare Milazzo - MuMa Milazzo Sea Museum) and Valentina Gottlieb (environmental advocate and actress) – in collaboration with the educators from Biblioteche Senza Frontiere – led a meditation class inspired by the movements of yoga and the waves and a ‘charades’ game inspired by the animals that live in or near the Ocean.

In the days before that, Biblioteche Senza Frontiere organized a series of community activation workshops in collaboration with Edizioni Precarie, highlighting the need to develop a collective consciousness regarding issues of marine ecosystem protection.

“We are proud that SEA BEYOND has supported Biblioteche Senza Frontiere in creating the first SEA BEYOND Ideas Box, which will enable children to gain the knowledge required to become well-informed adults who are conscious of the future. We are equally proud that it is FOQUS, an oasis of culture and opportunities, that is welcoming it into its spaces”, stated Lorenzo Bertelli, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility of the Prada Group and Executive Director, Patron of the Ocean Decade Alliance.