Day 49: Environmental Projects Unite
By Sheraine van Wyk with Whale Coast Conservation and Gansbaai Academia, Hermanus, South Africa, 11 October 2017
Whale Coast Conservation is an NGO operating in the Overstrand area, in South Africa. Our primary focus is environmental education and we have learnt valuable lessons this past year about how involving different people in environmental projects can bridge social divides, whether these are structural, cultural, language orientated, economic or historic. The day of learning gave us the opportunity to share this lesson with important others in a novel way.
We arranged to have a meal at Gansbaai Academia, a local secondary school at which we run the Youth Environment Programme, with learner chefs preparing the meal. The school has a restaurant room to train learners.
We invited the headmasters of all the schools in the town, the ward councillor, Whale Coast Conservation board members, local business people, parents and some of the youth that we have worked with closely.
We wanted to tell them the story of how a river restoration project was enabling us to bridge social divides and strive towards the community we envision.
Rivers often divide us: one country from another; one part of a city from another; one farmer from others. Rivers often promote conflict rather than communication. That is why rivers are a frequent target for those of us who wish to heal divisions. The Mill Stream fascinated us. Not quite a river in its own right, but enough to act as a boundary between different communities in the town of Stanford in the Western Cape Province of South Africa.
Whale Coast Conservation involved senior youth in a river restoration project through an eco-camp where they have assisted in doing frog, bird, dragonfly and plant monitoring, as well as water testing. The river is polluted and waste is strewn everywhere. The youth were so moved that they created a service project where they now clean up regularly once a month. This attracted the attention of other residents who also joined in, at the same time learning about the project and the problems in the river. Working to a common purpose, cooperation arises naturally between economic classes and between generations.
After each clean up session, we share a meal together and talk about the project and about who we are. Older people (WCC staff, conservation-minded adults and municipal officials) get to know and appreciate the aspirations and strengths of younger people from different communities and the hurdles in their paths. This is when the magic happens and people start to help others by giving a helping hand.
At the DoL, a few young people told stories of how they were helped along their way by people that they developed relationships with through the environmental project and the value of this in helping them realise their aspirations. This has given our community leaders a glimpse of what can be achieved through engaging in environmental issues and projects together and how creating opportunities to talk and get to know others, makes us see their needs and simple ways of helping them. Supporting our youth in achieving their dreams means working towards a better future for our community and our world.
The stream, as it begins to appear from the accumulated waste of decades, creates a sense of ownership and ongoing responsibility. It no longer divides and threatens. Rather, it unifies and we realise that being united in an environmental and educational project can take us closer to a unified community.
About 100 Days of Learning
Age of Wonderland 2017 presents 100 DAYS OF LEARNING, a global learning event to exchange valuable life experiences with peers. Doers and thinkers from around the world — innovators, scientists, engineers, artists, designers, social entrepreneurs — are invited to share their personal stories, ideas, and practice, not to be found in textbooks. Aim is to rediscover knowledge, challenge beliefs, and exchange life lessons with others. To make the world a better place, we need to embrace change on an individual level, and inspire others to do the same.
