Born Free Foundation - Keep Wildlife in the Wild

23 April 2009

Wow what a busy few weeks it has been!!! In the beginning of the month I attended a conference on Environmental Education with people from all over the Eastern Cape Province. This was terrific as we discussed issues affecting the education in the province and how we are going to make environmental learning part of every classroom. It was also a great opportunity for me to meet people in the field and network with a lot of teachers. We also had a stand where we showcased our education program showing schools how Born Free can assist them in learning about the environment and the plight of captive wild animals.

We also had a very special visit from a group of children from the Reach for a Dream Foundation. This foundation fulfils the wishes of children with life-threatening diseases. We had a group of 15 children with Aids come and visit us for the day as one of their wishes was to see wildlife.

In my previous blog I said that I would tell you all about Eco-Schools. Well basically Eco-Schools is an international program run at schools aimed at better environmental learning and better environmental management. Schools have to follow 7 steps to become an Eco-School. I will be going through these steps as the schools I work with progress. Born Free support five schools in this area as part of their Global Friends Campaign. All five of these schools have been registered as an Eco-School and that is the first step in becoming one. Next they have to elect an Eco-Committee which consists of learners, teachers and parents. And then they have to come up with an Eco-Code which is basically the environmental policy for their school and what they strive to achieve at their school. All the schools have been tasked to set up their Committee and Code before our next monthly meeting.

One of the high schools in the local community close to our sanctuary, Sandisulwazi High School has elected a very proactive committee who has set up their code and chosen their project for the year! Their Eco-Code is as follows: “We strive to have a school that promotes a healthy clean environment by improving environmental learning by involving the whole school and community”. This code was set up by 10 learners on the committee, quite impressive for a bunch of fourteen year olds!!! The next step is to do an audit of your schools to see where your strengths as weaknesses lie. That way you can choose one of 5 themes (Nature and Biodiversity, Resource Use, Healthy Living, Local and Global Issues, Heritage and Culture). This school went full steam ahead without any support from me and have chosen the theme Resource Use for their school. Their project for the year will be to collect rubbish in their school and do clean up of their town (which looks like a dumpsite with all the rubbish lying around) and then they will recycle all this rubbish and generate a bit of income for their school.

If you would like to find out more about Eco-Schools in South Africa visit their website at: www.wessa.org.za/eduecoschools.asp and Eco-Schools international at: www.eco-schools.org

Blogging off from a from a not so warm and sunny South Africa today,

Christine