Friday 21 November 2014

 MY CAPSTONE PROJECT FOR GLOBAL ENCOUNTERS 2014

PANTOUM POETRY

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION= AWARENESS AND RESPONSIBILITY?

When I saw the litter on the streets,
I was devastated
No one cared about Nairobi
And its beauty

I was devastated
That the environment was given no importance
I assumed
That there was a lack of environmental education

I assumed
That schools did not have environmental education in their curriculums
But when I first visited our community partner site
I realised the opposite is true

But when I first visited our community partner site
I saw environmental education painted outside
I thought to myself,
Do they really teach the kids what they claim to teach?

I thought to myself
If environmental education is actually taught,
What effect does it have
On the school?

If environmental education is actually taught
It must have an impact.
I wanted to investigate
If it makes the children at Garden more environmentally responsible.

It must have an impact on
Their environment
On their surroundings
On their lives

Their environment-
Where they live
Value for the environment is very important
Just like the AKDN values the environment

Where they live
Their founder/ father
Values the environment very much
And treats environmental education as an integral part of the school

Their founder/father-
A dynamic man
I interviewed him
Because I heard environmental education was once the only thing taught at the school

A dynamic man
Told me
How much environmental education has made a difference
In the kids’ lives

Told me
Some surprising things
Like how they have a community cooker (jiko)
Which converts waste into fuel

Some surprising things
Some great ideas
Like how each child plants, adopts and nurtures a tree
And grows with it

Some great ideas
Which have helped reduce illness
Significant because the children
Cannot afford proper healthcare

Which have helped reduce illness
And also drive a chain reaction
Which spreads environmental responsibility
From child to child

And also drives a chain reaction
As I witnessed myself.
The level of cleanliness around was more than I expected
Especially looking at the children’s backgrounds

As I witnessed myself
And as told by other people at the site
Environmental education is taught on the school field
And incorporated into the school’s philosophy

And as told by other people at the site
The father/founder
Encourages the kids to keep an area of
”100 m2” around them clean

The father/ founder
As part of his emphasis on the environment
Has set up a greenhouse and farm (shamba)
Which are maintained by the children

As part of his emphasis on the environment
Environmental education is taught at Garden
Because of the children’s backgrounds, it has been hard
 But emphasis here never stops

Environmental education is taught at Garden
And it has had a great impact on the children
Not being taught such things in the slums,
It has made them more environmentally responsible

And it has had a great impact on the children
As said by my other interviewee
As a student at the school for a long time,
He has seen the difference

As said by my other interviewee
Environmental education was part of Garden
Before it became a formal school
Educating from primary to secondary

Environmental education was part of Garden
From the time of its establishment
My other interviewee: a student
Told me the effect it had on him

From the time of its establishment
As the child told me
It has taught children from the slums discipline
In terms of taking care of the environment (environmental responsibility)

As the child told me
Environmental education
Has taught him not only discipline,
But responsibility towards the environment

Environmental education
Has made a huge difference
He told me there used to be a garbage dump next to garden
And it helped reduce the effect it had on their premises

Has made a huge difference
On the garden community
It has made them more environmentally responsible
By incorporating it in their lives

On the garden community
And I
It has made an impact
I saw how environmental education can change lives
And I
Think
This can be implemented
In other places

Think
What it could do
If all schools had it incorporated
Into their curriculums?

What it could do is
Change the world
Change our surroundings
Especially in a world under the threat of global warming and climate change

Change the world
In a positive way
I would like to encourage schools back home
To implement this

In a positive way
It could make a huge difference
 The situation back home is similar to that of Kenya
And I think it can make a great impact


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