The youth office of the Formentera Council reports three local pupils took part this Monday in the seventh session of the Balearic Islands' Parlament Infantil, or Parliament for Kids.

Kiara Berazategui (Mestre Lluís Andreu), Mario Romero (El Pilar de la Mola) and Adora Tur (Sant Ferran) from Formentera's own youth participatory council travelled to Mallorca, not only to talk about the proposals they brought on behalf of their peers back home, but to work with other young people from the region to prepare a document called a “peace vaccine”.

“Vacuna de pau i bon tracte”

The document, whose full title is “Peace vaccine and pledge of good deeds against violence of all kinds”, includes a dozen suggestions about how to combat the virus of violence—everything from ending wars and regulating the sale and manufacture of weapons to introducing peace education and conflict resolution in school and the importance of levelling societal differences by eliminating hierarchy.

Parlament Infantil takes place once a year in observance of Universal Children's Day and is organised by the Balearic Parlament, the Office of the Defence of the Rights of Minors (ODDM) and the UNICEF committee for the Balearics.

Parlament reaffirms its commitment to supporting organisations and actions which promote awareness about the problems facing children around the world. In so doing, the legislative body seeks to enliven the ongoing debate and create a space where the issues that affect children can be addressed, and this in such a way as to foster aptitudes and attitudes essential to citizen participation and help children interiorise messages of sustainability, ecology and appreciation for their surroundings.

Session video:  https://youtu.be/XmxMSGupTlo

This Friday November 23, the commerce department of the Formentera Council is partnering with Eivissa and Formentera's small and medium-sized business association to present “Black Friday on Formentera” as part of the buy-local programme “Compra a Casa”.

All day long, purchases of over €15 in participating stores will earn shoppers a chance to win a €50 gift card.

Following an announcement on Monday November 26, the winning shopper can pick up their reward at the PIMEF office.

Twenty-nine businesses have joined Compra a Casa since it began in 2016, with 1,700 local shoppers receiving loyalty cards.

The Formentera Council's environment department reports that nearly 35 volunteers gathered Saturday morning to take part in a day of educational outreach and environmental action, clearing human-made mounds of stones from Es Trucadors.

The day got going at 10.30am and was finished by 2.00pm. Nearby nature reserve staff and fauna specialists helped familiarise volunteers with the steps to follow in dismantling the rock piles depending on the stones in question. Some, they were told, should to be taken to the waterline while others, which serve as refuges for tiny invertebrates and other species inhabiting the area, were to be left inland.

Volunteers worked in groups and formed two chains, the human links rotating to cover the area where most of the piles littered the landscape.

A team of individuals from the regional nature institute (Ibanat), environmental defence group Gen-Gob, Formentera Sense Plastic, Ses Salines nature reserve staff and management and the Formentera Council joined volunteers at the event.

CiF environment secretary Daisee Aguilera hailed the efforts of the people, groups and offices of the public administration that joined in and “helped restore the area to its original natural beauty”. The secretary noted that Es Trucadors, which sits smack in the middle of Ses Salines nature reserve, whose exposure to wind and waves makes particularly susceptible to erosion. Those same weather conditions are behind the strange and unique coastal features that are one of the reserve's defining characteristics—and the reason it is vulnerable to even subtle changes.

At the end of the day crews planted a sign encouraging future visitors to leave stones where they find them and pointing to the space's fragility in explaining how changes to the landscape can hurt flora and fauna.

The social welfare department of the Formentera Council reports that two young women joined the administration payroll this week thanks to a programme of the Balearic employment office branded SOIB Jove Qualificats Entitats Locals.

Trumpeting the qualities of the programme, department head Vanessa Parellada said “it gives our youth a great opportunity get their feet wet in the working world through a range of areas in the public administration, the Formentera Council included”.

SOIB Jove 'Qualified Local Entities'

The programme unlocks money to generate jobs for unemployed youth between the ages of 18 and 30 who are enrolled in Spain's Garantia Juvenil or “Youth Promise” system. Candidates must have completed an accredited academic course or advanced vocational training, though previous work experience in one's field is not required.

Maria Antònia Martorell and Alba Portas will be responsible for putting together the Formentera Council's catalogue of services and incorporating it into the administration's web site. The site will serve as a tool for islanders and visitors to obtain information about varying services and arms of the administration.

The two will also take the lead on creation of an administrative database envisioned as a one-stop shop where specialists can locate up-to-date information on general and tourism-related activities.

SOIB Jove Qualificats Entitats Locals receives funding from the 2014-2020 Operational Programme for Youth Employment and Youth Employment Initiative of the European Social Fund, as well as additional support from the Sector Conference Fund.

This is the Formentera Council's second experience with the SOIB Jove programme.