Study trip to the rainforest in Kenya

Fifteen students from St. Patrick’s Ebubere mixed secondary accompanied by two teachers, Mr. Okwako Zadick and madam Imelda Indeche went on a study trip to Kakamega rainforest.
Students interacted with indegenous tree species preserved in the Forest.
Students were taken through the importance of conserving indegenous trees which has contributed to high and reliable rainfall in the western part of Kenya.

The students got to see many tree species that grow in the rainforest. For example:

An Elgon Teak tree that is 150 years old

African Mahogany tree, often used for wood carving

Sand Paper tree( Sacred tree or tree or tree justice). This tree has pockets used to store water for wild animals.

Aningeria altissima. A medicinal tree that improves the body’s immunity

Sand paper tree

Aningeria altissima

Elgon Teak tree

Triangular Fig Tree

Triangular Fig Tree

The study trip took one hour and students came back to school to share what they had gained from the trip. The students came to appreciate the role that forests play in regulating and stabilising the climate system of their region. It is very important to preserve forests to save habitat for animals and endangered plant species.

Stories from the community

Rwamwanja BTVET Training Centre–Finn Church Aid (FCA)

Work Process Summary

Rwamwanja BTVET Training Centre–Finn Church Aid (FCA)

The project was implemented by Finn Church Aid (FCA) in Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement, Western Uganda. The refugee settlement is mainly home to Congolese Refugees, mainly from Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

How students were selected: The project begun in February 2021 with identification of students to participate in project activities. A simple criterion was used to aid the selection process. Through this criteria, the project targeted youths aged 15-25 years, living in Rwamwanja refugee settlement (refugees), youths of the Rwamwanja ‘host community’, and former trainee of the Rwamwanja BTVET Training Center with demonstrated interest and commitment to the training program. In total, 16 students were selected including 10M, 6F; 13 refugees and 3 ‘host community’ youths.

Orientation on project activities: Orientation for all selected youths was held for one day. It focused on explaining what NGO Mondo is / what it does, explaining the project objectives and activities, agreeing on how to align the new activities within the BTVET Center IT Lab program, and scheduling meeting and training days. Engaging students in climate change related activities: The students were engaged every Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in class workshops and related field study excursions basing on the lesson plan provided by Mondo as a guide. In addition, the students were engaged in the following activities:

• During the first week, students were introduced to NGO Mondo School Network Project; they were also introduced to the School Linking Blog(https://foodforthoughtmondo.wordpress.com/). Consequently, the students were able to use the school linking blog, and throughout the project period, the students used the blog to interact with their peers and learn more about global climate issues. The students, with support by trainers, were engaged in 3 groups to write three short introductions about themselves and selected one story that was shared on the school network linking blog.
• During week three, the students were introduced to Climate Change and related issues using the USAID Climate Change Fact Sheet as a guide to the discussion. In two groups of eight, the students discussed the fact sheet trying to relate it to personal experiences on local climate change issues and phenomena. A Cartoon Video (MAN by Steve Cutts: https://youtu.be/WfGMYdalClU) assisted the students to understand better the linkage between human activity, environmental destruction and climate change. In their groups of eight, the students wrote their own reflection, what they understood and thought after the Cartoon Video and their insights on the video were shared through the school network linking blog.
• For weeks four to six, students participated in creative writing and video editing. These were held using the workshop approach. Each student composed a small ‘climate and me’ story also remembered as a ‘life changing event’ they experienced, and shared with the group, while recording each story.   Consequently, three short ‘climate and me’ videos were recorded and edited by the students themselves using smartphones. The three short videos were later merged into one video, giving the students the video-editing skills to edit separate video clips into one larger video. Since the videos were recorded in local languages, interpreters assisted to translate the students’ words into (by adding subtitles to the videos). Finally, the students themselves created a group YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCskxTYek5lU1bt1yLtmn8-g, where they shared their climate change video stories.
• Through week 8 and 10, the project supported students in collecting climate change stories from their communities. The students, supported by the BTVET Training Centre Instructors (teachers) visited different communities around the refugee settlement in Base Camp 1 and Base Camp 2 and shared with the communities on their experience and understanding of climate change and its effects. Students also recorded some videos with some of the community members as they shared their climate change stories.
• Lastly, a number of field workshops were conducted with groups of students engaging the local communities to find a number of climate change-related stories /events and/or phenomena. Consequently, two stories were chosen by the students for sharing on the school network blog. The stories were edited by students themselves. Since they were recorded in the local languages, the project engaged interpreters to provide subtitles in English so that the stories can be understood by other students around the world. The stories were shared on the group’s YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCskxTYek5lU1bt1yLtmn8-g)

Mutoni Uwase (Left) and her colleague Jacinta (Centre) conducting an interview with (Furuha Uwimana) a community member (Right) about climate change while being recorded

Group Discussions/Brainstorming: A group of students engage in an independent discussion during creative writing workshops

Guided Group Discussions: Students Engaged in Group Discussions about climate change with guidance from FCA ICT Instructor (Extreme Right)

Introduction from Rubizhne Secondary School

The team of Rubizhne Secondary School of I-III grades № 9 consisting of 20 students of 10-11 grades and biology teacher Natalia Dobroskok became a participant of the mini-project “We and Climate Change” 1Planet4All, implemented by Vostok SOS Charitable Foundation in partnership with Mondo NGO from Estonia

The school’s close long-term cooperation with the Vostok SOS Charitable Foundation always inspires new achievements and creative development. This time we will have an incredible study on “Climate Change and Us”, and most importantly – the opportunity to share ideas and experiences with students from Afghanistan, Estonia, Ghana, Kenya, Myanmar, Uganda.

During the project, we and students from different countries will discuss climate change in the classroom, create content for the school network blog, publish our own stories, photos, videos, in which we will talk about the impact of climate change on the community.

In the first sessions of Climate Change and Us project we got to know more about the school network and schools who are involved in it by reading the blog of the project.

We then went on to learn more about climate change and also practices creative writing to find our own stories about our lives and climate change. We also learned how to edit videos just by using our smartphones.

To begin our investigation about climate change we did and interview with a specialist from the Rubizhne city council.

Introduction from Belovodsk Lyceum in Ukraine

Since March 2021, Belovodsk Lyceum “Leader” has been holding regular classes with students of grades 9 to 11 for the environmental project “Climate Change and Us”.

In these classes, working in groups, students emphasized that climate change is a global challenge, which means that to overcome it, the whole world must work together. We noticed that in order for people in power to hear and understand us, we need to be able to use our voice. If we are good speakers and can tell interesting stories, we can make our leaders better understand who we are and what changes we need.
Thanks to the Internet, we have the opportunity to tell our story to people from other cities, districts, regions and even around the world. Perhaps without our history, they would never know what kind of people live in our community, how they live and what problems they face due to climate change. People living in regions with cold climates may think that global warming is good – because the hot weather is not so bad for them. But if they are aware of the damage that drought and too hot weather can do in other countries, they will be able to better understand and empathize.

When we empathize with others, it is easier for us to work together and achieve great things. That’s why it’s so important to know how to tell stories – to inspire empathy.

The history of every citizen is important.

The students worked on three questions to which they had to find answers.

1. What was one of the important and significant experiences that influenced who they became? Within 10-15 minutes, the students had the opportunity to respond to them.
2. Have you had experience monitoring climate change? How has this affected your community? Is the weather different from when you were a child?
3. To build a better future, we must first imagine ourselves there. What would the world look like for you? What are your dreams for a sustainable world, where communities are strong and peaceful, where we can not only continue our traditions, but also innovate? What might the dream community look like to you (which is strong before climate change)? What role can you play to make this dream come true?
   At the end of the allotted time, those interested had the opportunity to talk about what they would like to share. The students told their unexpected life stories. The audience was very moved by the story of a boy-immigrant from the city of Luhansk. Some students shared experiences that influenced their worldview. Each student had his own story, which has a great impact on personal vision of the world. The answers were varied: from their own experience of participating in various environmental projects to the stories of their loved ones and friends. In this way, the project participants learned more about each other, and we hope that in the future it will help them get closer to overcoming global problems.

Here is a photo of our team of students:

Introduction from Rapla Vesiroosi Gümnaasium

Greetings from Rapla Vesiroosi Kool (Rapla Waterlily School)!

Our small hometown Rapla is located in Central Estonia, not far (56 km) from Tallinn and it is green and cosy.

At our school there are students 7-16 years old and altogether more than 500 hundred students and about 60 teachers.

Our school is well-known in many movements in Estonia: Nature and environment, Health, Career, Sporty movement for students, Global education, Drama studies, music groups(singers and musicians), the partnership with Soldino school from Narva is definitely one of our favourite projects. We are eager to communicate with new partners worldwide as well. We are proud of our Students` Council and its activities for the whole school (quizizz, newspaper and thematic days).

Sustainable projects are dedicated to nature and environment. Not only outdoor activities, but also the topics are integrated into the lessons in the timetable. The group of students who participate in the project are mostly from Form9, but there are younger students as well.

The project is important because we have nature and environment themes in the lessons. Our school works together with the Environmental centre and students in classes have nature trips. The World Cleanup Day has always been important and popular in our school. We have already noticed some climate changes. It would be interesting to share the stories with other participants.

Here are some photos of our World Cleanup activities:

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And this is how our school looks like: Some pictures are of the nature around our school and some from inside the school)

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Climate change activities from a girls’ school in Afghanistan

In the spring of 2021 a girls school from Afghanistan also participated in “Climate Change and Us” project. It was very inspiring to see them learning about climate change and sharing their knowledge with their community.

The students feel that climate change is a highly important issue for them because extreme weather instances impact the lives of people living in the IDP camp very much. For example dirty lakes and water pollution around the school makes it difficult to get clean water. At the camp, burning coal in winter season for heating the rooms is a big problem for air quality and extreme weather and increasing temperatures in the summer are impacting the lives of people more and more.

The students in the group had their first sessions of Climate Change and Us project where they got to know more about the harmful effects of climate change. They are eager to learn more about it and start collecting stories from their community.

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As further activities the students organised a tree planting activity in their school, did a trash cleanup in their community and inspired other people in their community to care more about the environment and their health.

We want to congratulate these brave young girls for their courage and hard work. Well done!

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