AMAGEP masters Sustainable Development project for Environment

Since the end of lockdown in South Africa, AMAGEP has focused on bringing together environment and education in South Africa. In this era of sustainable development, environment and education need to be truly integral, with the well-being of future generations and the planet at stake. What better way to begin tackling sustainability issues than through meaningful education on the environment, where learners take ownership and

Operating in the region of Johannesburg, AMAGEP is giving the trainees the spirit and culture of environmental awareness, which helped them take ownership of their own environment. They displayed increasing comfort and confidence in the program by coming up with questions and utilizing computers at the center with their recently acquired computer skills, to independently look for answers. To further develop this curiosity, the environmental education piece was introduced. The idea was to see how aware and concerned trainees are about their surroundings and motivate them to have an attitude to work both individually and collectively toward solutions to current problems and the prevention of new ones. The environments sessions were meant to start an open dialogue that will help them stimulate their curiosity as well as engage with real-world issues that transcend classroom walls.

During the introductory session, trainees at Yeoville Library were divided into small groups and were thrown a series of questions ranging from current climate changes they are observing, to the use of plastic in houses. The approach was simple, by using inquiry-based learning, making them aware of practices and attitudes around them toward the environment and helping them to inquire into those. The facilitator Mr Jay McZani and Mme Claire Bombe guided the discussion by interjecting at critical moments, asking the right kind of questions and creating a friendly environment so that trainees can share their thoughts without hesitation. The entire classroom became engaged in discussions; they were comfortable and sharing confidently. They were actively participating and were driving the discussion. It was clear this was something they could relate to their everyday life experiences.

The discussion led to a time of sharing ideas and the trainees came up with many interesting ideas about what factors are responsible for climatic changes in Johannesburg area, pointing to different kinds of pollution, ozone layer depletion, increasing greenhouse gases and the resulting global warming. The ideas were encouraged to be transformed into possible solutions to tackle these problems.

By presenting science that is alive and relevant to the daily lives of students, AMAGEP takes discussions on the environment through to actionable steps. The program is meant to engage youth in all places, so that they can begin educating their own communities about local environmental issues and start taking small steps to solve these issues with community action. More specifically, the initiative is driven by youth, children and parent mentors, who identify and resolve an environmental issue of their choice in their locale. Through this policy by AMAGEP, the program is putting into motion communal action to protect the environment.

Local environment pioneers and Medical Doctors from African diaspora living in Johannesburg shared their own stories and experiences, while highlighting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals along with the Design for Change guide on how to go through the process from ideas for change into actionable solutions.

For AMAGEP, environmental education also means going out in the field to directly address issues that have detrimental consequences for specific populations. AMAGEP’s aim is to take the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework not only as a reference, but as a practical guide. By merging education and environment through various programs, our design is to simultaneously integrate multiple SDGs, such as reducing inequalities, addressing job market-aligned education needs, supporting women for economic growth, utilizing affordable and clean energy, and solving water and health issues. And we look forward to doing more in the future.

By providing opportunities to employ knowledge and skills in a larger and local ecosystem, the convergence of education and environment can spur individual and communal action for a cause. Combining education and environment can inform views on current societal norms toward the environment and can help begin conversations around each individual’s role and utility in seemingly “big problems.” We look forward to seeing what these initiatives can bring about as education and environment come together for sustainability.