Introduction: students from Tamsalu Gymnasium

We are students from Tamsalu Gymnasium, Estonia. Our school is located in northeastern Estonia and has about 400 students. We study global education where we learn about global problems including climate change. Our sister school is Eubere High School in Kenya. We have focused on climate change in our video and are interested in learning more about Kenya’s and other countries’ viewpoints on this subject. We believe that people should talk about climate change to make others aware of the severity of this issue. We must take care of our planet while we are still young and able to do so as we have to live here for the rest of our lives. We also have to protect the planet for the sake of younger generations who will live here one day. Everybody has the responsibility of keeping Earth alive.

Here is a short introduction video of us:

Climate Change and Us

Since the beginning of year 2021 we have been working hard to start the activities for our new school network project called “Climate Change and Us”. Young people from Estonia, Afghanistan, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and Ukraine will be looking into how climate change affects them and their communities. We will collect stories about climate change, learn about storytelling and video editing and share these stories with our peers from other countries. Learning about the effects of climate change on the world will help us take action against it together.

So let’s start learning and sharing what we know with others. We’re all excited to get to know each other better. 🙂

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Day in my life: John and Zamira

John is 11 years old and in class 5 and Zamira is 8 years old and in class 2. They are cousins and both live with their grandmother Genoveva.
They go to Mukambi Primary School in Shianda, Kenya.

Want to know how their schoolday looks like?

Take a look at the video below 🙂

And here is a small interview with them:

Videos filmed by Julie Escoffier and edited by Triinu Tulva.

 

A Day in My Life: Mercy

Mercy is a 13-year-old girl from Kongo village in Northern Ghana. She lives together with her sisters and grandmother. Here is a video of her school day.

Video by: Kaisa Kasekamp

A Day in My Life: Lizy

 

Lizy is a Student in Girls’ Model School in Kongo village, Northern Ghana. Here you can see a video of her school day.

Video by: Silja Mall

Here is an interview with Lizy:

Video by: Silja Mall

A Day in My Life: Maria

Maria is a 16-year-old student from Severodonetsk, Ukraine. She is a very active girl and has many hobbies. Her favourite subject in school is maths. Take a look what her day is like:

Video by: Maria Bannikova

Recycling workshop in Yakoti Primary and Junior High School

A group of students from Yakoti Primary and Junior High School took part in a recycling workshop on the 4th of November. We discussed the problems that plastic waste causes in the environment and ways to solve these problems. We came to a conclusion that the most important step to dealing with the waste problem is not to create the trash in the first place. By reducing the amount of single use plastics (bags, bottles etc) we buy and take from the shops we create less waste that needs to be disposed of. We also talked about how we should reuse these same plastic items many times and when they are no longer usable we can recycle them to make new objects.

Groups of students went around our school buildings and collected the plastic trash that was on the ground. We learned how to make yarn from that plastic and used it for weaving ropes, knitting and crocheting different objects. Some students even got the clever idea to make a net for the football goal in our school. All in all we had a fun workshop and learned a lot!

Zanlerigu Primary School and plants in our yard

Classes 4, 5 and 6 from Zanlerigu Primary took part of different school linking activities. From 7^th to 11^th of November.

Our friends from Estonia sent us a presentation about plants in their school yard. We looked at it with classes 6a and 6b and the Mondo teacher from Estonia was explaining the uses of these plants and some things about the climate and nature of Estonia. For us it is quite difficult to imagine a place than can be so cold at times. We made herbal tree from linden tree flowers and drank it together.

With class 6b we then went around our own school and talked about the ways we use the trees that are found here. The trees that we saw were Neem tree, Kapok, Flamboyant tree, Mahogany, Eucalyptus and Acacia. The most obvious benefit of all these trees is that they provide shade and coolness for us and our animals when the weather is very hot outside.

Some trees also have very special value for their beauty. For example in the beginning of rainy season the Flamboyant tree bears very decorative red flowers that are pleasing to look at. Flamboyant tree and Acacia belong to the the bean family of plants which means that they bear fruits that are stored on pods. These pods of seeds can be used to make different sounds and play music. These trees also have fern-like leaves that are made up of many small units attached to one leaf-stem.

The trees that have medicinal value are Neem tree and Mahogany. We can make tea from neem leaves, which can lower fever, clean blood, support liver function and much more. Around here people often use small sticks of neem tree to clean their teeth (the bark of neem is antiseptic and anti-inflammatory). The seeds inside neem berries can be used for making oil, which is widely used in production of cosmetics. This oil also has a use as natural insect repellent. Because neem is a fast growing tree it is also often used as firewood. Growing neem trees also makes the soil more fertile because the roots can grow very deep and bring minerals back to the surface of the ground.

Mahogany is a tree that is prized for the beautiful colour and texture of it’s wood. That is why it’s often used to make luxury furniture. Mahogany is a slow growing tree. We use the bark and sap of mahogany tree for medicine, especially to cure stomach pains. That is why when you see mahogany here, their trunks have many scars and holes in them. People routinely go to the tree to cut it and get medicine.

The Kapok tree has fruits that contain cotton like fibre. We use it to make pillows.

Eucalyptus is a tree uses up a lot of water from the ground, so people plant it to irrigate very wet areas.

After seeing all the plants and talking about them each student chose one tree and drew a picture of it also stating some of the uses of this tree.

With both classes 6a and 6b we read the letters from our friends from Kuristiku Gümnaasium and wrote letters about ourselves back.

Clean up activity with Kongo Primary School

On 7th of November all the students of Kongo Primary School participated in a clean up activity of our village. The clean-up activity was a part of the program for our school anniversary celebration. In Kongo we have quite a big problem with waste management. The disposal of waste is not so well organized by the govenrment which means that most people are left to dispose of their waste on their own. Some people burn all of their trash (including the plastics) and other people just throw it on the ground somewhere. Because of that there is a lot of plastic trash littering the environment here, which of course as we all know, is not good.

The more than 500 students of our school all came together on Monday to clean as much of the village as possible. Students from Kongo Junior High School joined us as well. We took the road from our school to the education office in the village and picked up trash that we found on the way. The road looked much nicer afterwards 🙂

It’s one thing to try to clean up the litter that’s already around, but more importantly we have to find ways to keep the trash from getting to the environment in the first place. For that purpose we had a discussion with classes 5 and 6 where we talked about different ways to solve the waste problem. Namely the importance of reducing our use of plastic packages, reusing the plastic object we already have and recycling the things that can no longer be used. As a recycling technique we learned how to weave and crochet with yarn made from plastic bags.

We learned how important it is that everbody takes responsibility for keeping our village clean.

Presentation Primary School: Trees around our school

A group of students from classes 1-6 from Presentation Primary School learned about the different trees that are found near our school. Our teacher David was telling us about the uses that these trees have.

The trees that we talked about were: Jatropha, Mahogany, Fig tree, Shea tree, Neem, Dawadawa. Red and yellow berry trees.

Jatropha is a plant that can be used to produce oil. Mahogony tree has very hard and beautiful wood and therefore is used for carpentry, but besides that it also has medicinal value in easing stomach pains. Neem tree is also used as medicine to lower fevers. Dawadawa tree fruits are very nutritious and we use it in many dishes (like soups, stews and rice dishes).

After seeing all the trees we went to the library and everybody chose one tree to draw. We made picture of the trees and wrote uses of them next to our drawings.