Overall targets
The aim of this intervention is to create awareness for behavioural change in proper waste management, clean cooking and tree planting as mitigation measures to environmental degradation in Soroti District. This includes capacity development and advocacy activities in the schools and at the district level. The Clean Environment Initiative in Secondary Schools Project aims to bring citizens in Uganda to actively get involved in solving environmental issues facing the Teso area. It will be implemented in partnership between Seniors without Borders (SwB), Joint Energy and Environment Projects (JEEP), and Youth Leading Environment Change (YLEC) in order to create awareness to influence schools and students' behavioural change in clean cooking and waste management, as well as general environment conservation in Soroti.
Immediate targets
1. Members of Environmental Clubs have increased their environmental capacity in order to address the problems around clean cooking, tree planting and waste management. 2. The students, school administrators and Environmental Club Patrons have gained sufficient knowledge to act as agents of change and advocate for proper environmental management in the schools and the communities through behavioural change 3. The students have inspired and have achieved the support of the local leaders at the municipality level, district level and religious leaders on environmental conservation and sustainable use of natural resources
Target groups
3.1 Primary target group a. Secondary school students in environmental clubs in 7 schools. This will be about 350 students in total, 50 per school. 5 schools already have environmental clubs; the last two have wildlife clubs, which will be transferred into environmental clubs. Around 40 % are females. Students come from the whole of the Eastern part of Uganda. From Karamoja to Tororo. b. The school administration and Environmental Club Patrons. About 42 in total, 6 per school c. Soroti district and municipality leaders. Including the District Chief Administration Officer (CAO)/ Deputy CAO, the Natural Resource Officer and District Education Officer (DEO), the District Forestry Officers and the District Community Officer. d. Religious leaders The schools where the intervention will be carried out will be the following: Soroti Municipal Secondary School, Halcyon High School, Light Secondary School, Ollie High School, Bethany Girl’s School, Jersey High School and Erbium College, all in Soroti Municipality. The administrators in all these schools have accepted the project to take place within their schools. All schools except one have more than 1000 students. The majority of the students being in boarding and coming from as far as Karamoja. Uganda’s population is dominated by a young generation with a median age of 15 years (CIA, 2009; UBOS, 2012), a figure that ranks highest as the youngest population in the world, (State of Uganda Population Report, 2012). A total of 52% are below 15 years. This is the reason we focus on the youth. Therefore to ensure sustainability in our behaviour change approach to environment management, the students are a very good target group because they are the nearby future men and women that will define the direction society will take. a. Students in environmental clubs in 7 secondary schools in Soroti will be trained in energy saving stove construction, tree planting and waste management. School cross visits will also be organized to exchange knowledge and experience with other students. b. The school administration and the Environmental Club Patrons: The Environmental Club Patrons will be trained in areas relating to the thematic areas. This is to ensure that they can continue training more environmental club students in similar skills after the project is complete. Advocating will be undertaken to the school administration and respective communities including representatives of the Board of Directors, Headmaster, Deputy Headmaster, Director of Studies and Parent Teacher Association representative management. The advocacy will relate to institutional stoves, waste management and tree planting within the schools. This will aim to persuade them to invest in the clean cooking stoves, to promote proper waste management and tree planting within the schools. c. Soroti district and municipality leaders: Among other things, the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda (1995) grants wide-ranging powers to local councils, including the political, legislative and executive authority to enact local laws within their areas of jurisdiction. They also possess powers to make development plans based on locally determined priorities. The local leaders will be useful in policy enforcement by ensuring measures are put in place to reduce environmental degradation and support environmental activities in schools. The project partners will liaise closely with local leaders authorities and lobby them to prioritize the proposed actions when planning for the education sector. As mentioned they will be invited to follow the project at the schools and will be invited for meetings and exhibitions. d. Religious leaders: Religious leaders are highly recognized moral personnel in Uganda. A lot of what is preached to their congregation is considered righteous. For this reason they will be sensitized to so that they can breed a supportive environment for students who will be implementing the projects in their communities. 3.2 Secondary target groups The secondary target groups, central for the success and sustainability of the project, will be: a. Community members where the students come from. b. Students who are not in the environmental clubs.
Resume
Formålet er at skabe bevidsthed mht til adfærdsændring vedrørende behandling af affald, introducere mindre forurening ved madlavning og fremme træplantning for at imødegå miljøødelæggelse i Soroti Distriktet. Projektet er to-årigt. Projektet fokuserer på flere af FN-målene: mindske fattigdom, rent vand, ren energi, kamp mod global opvarmning. Bæredygtighed er den røde tråd for alle initiativer. Medlemmerne af Environmentalt Clubs på 7 Sekundær skoler vil blive trænet teoretisk og især praktisk i baggrunden for problemerne og vil bringe deres viden og erfaringer hjem til deres familie og lokalsamfund. Partnere er Seniorer uden Grænser, JEEP ( Joint Energy and Environment Projects ) og YLEC ( Touth Leading Environment Change ). Begge disse organisationer har SuG samarbejde med bl.a. i det af CISU godkendte EAP-projekt.