Working with communities in Education for Sustainable Development

• In Event: Developing global citizenship for sustainable development beyond the human

Proposal

Educate A Child (EAC) has the mission to trigger significant breakthroughs in providing Out Of School Children (OOSC) faced with extreme poverty, environmental barriers, and conflict-affected settings an opportunity for a full course of quality primary education. EAC has the commitment to achieving individual social outcomes for the children whom we reach, their communities and a more sustainable world, which aligns directly with the tenets and long-term objectives of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). UNESCO defines ESD as empowering “learners to take informed decisions and responsible actions for environmental integrity, economic viability and a just society, for present and future generations, while respecting cultural diversity. It is about lifelong learning, and is an integral part of quality education. ESD is holistic and transformational education which addresses learning content and outcomes, pedagogy and the learning environment. EAC and her partners do initiate projects that require active participation by the children, parents, communities and education officers. Many of these projects are aligned with education for sustainable development as per the whole institution approach by UNESCO and as highlighted by the following examples:
In 2018, EAC and BRAC came up with a joint project in Bangladesh to provide the forcibly displaced Rohingya children from Myanmar with access to a primary level education. To ensure that the needs of refugee children and community are met, teachers are not only trained on pedagogy but also on health and hygiene issues, psychosocial support and disaster risk reduction. In addition, the parents and committee members who manage these learning centers also get trained on students’ safety and child protection, health and hygiene awareness. The Rohingya communities are therefore empowered to be proactive in solving their own challenges and ensuring that the children are provided with the right environment to grow and thrive.
In South Africa, EAC in conjunction with the MIET Africa have a project to enhance community buy-in for the enrolment of the OOSC. The project known as Education: My Life! My Future! Has the strategy of using the Parent Volunteers (PVs) and Learning Support Assistants (LSA), in the identification and enrolment of the OOSC. The parent volunteers and LSAs collaborates with the MIET team to identify those children who have never enrolled, the drop outs and then help them to enroll in nearby schools. In addition the project team and the LSAs are instrumental in identifying various service providers in their communities to support the most vulnerable children with additional services like food, clothing, teaching and learning materials send transport to schools so that these children remain in school.
Educate Girls in India and EAC partnership enrolled over 400,000 OOSC. The EG team works with local communities to support the enrolment of the most vulnerable children in marginalized areas. Through their volunteers known as the Team Balika, they mobilized communities to send their children especially girls to schools. At the school level they also work with the teachers to develop teaching and learning materials that make the lessons child friendly and fun to use.

Author

• David Mumo, Education Above All-Educate A Child