From Karin Brahms, Coordination Blue Community Germany:
At the end of the 2025 school year, Claus Wilkens, long-standing Blue Community Germany activist and water ambassador, will retire from teaching. In a few weeks’ time, at the beginning of September, he will emigrate to Canavieiras in the Brazilian state of Bahia, a place he has visited repeatedly in recent years and where he has established an excellent personal network of water and environmental activists.
We would all like to thank Claus, not only from Germany but from all over the world, for his tremendous commitment, and in particular for founding the ‘Blue Community School Europe’ network. This educational initiative began at the Wolfgang Ernst Gymnasium in Büdingen, which was certified as the first Blue Community School worldwide in May 2022 by Dr Maude Barlow during her visit to Germany.
Together with many dedicated local people from his teaching staff, the Blue Community town of Büdingen, the municipal utilities and others, Claus has done pioneering work in the field of water education. Annual ‘water days’ are held and the topic is an integral part of the curriculum, including as an elective course for years 9 and 10 at the Gymnasium. Of course, there are also dispensers for environmentally friendly tap water in schools, administrative offices and other locations.
Recently, the Janusz Korczak School in Altenstadt, where Claus has taught for the past few years, became the first primary school to be certified as a Blue Community School.
Although Claus is stepping down as Blue Community Ambassador in Germany due to his move, he remains committed to water issues, the Blue Community movement, and his schools in the Büdingen region. Additionally, a German-Brazilian project on water education has been running for a year as part of point 4 of the BC Declaration on International Partnerships. The aim is to organise exchanges and knowledge transfer with various schools. Before he leaves for Brazil, the Blue Community town of Büdingen and the Blue Community Schools are expecting a visit from a Brazilian delegation to hold some important initial discussions in person.
Dear Claus, we would like to thank you for your many years of cooperation and commitment, and we hope that you will continue to support the Blue Community movement, even though you are now based in a different region.
Photo: Paulina Schick
