Global Sustainability Story submitted by Gillian Ndlovu of Mashonaland Central Province, Zimbabwe
Like this GSS? Connect with Gillian on Instagram @gillow_mandlo or LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/gillian-n-972a8083/.
One sunny afternoon, me and my team at BLISS Botelwa made our way to Little Angels Early Learning Centre where we had a fruit tree planting event. This was our very first time hosting this event at an infant school with students from third grade and below. These brilliant minds were excited to have us around and we had a brief workshop session where we taught them about the Sustainable Development Goals as well as the importance of growing trees.
Project_BLISS in action as they are all from our field work. Tree planting event at Little Angels Early Learning Centre. Gillian Ndlovu picture top left.
Before heading out to the school orchard and garden; we took a few questions from the young ones. They were babies after all, what questions could they possibly have? Boy, were we in for the biggest surprise of our lives! Out of all capacity building workshops we have had elsewhere with high school students and community youth; we had never been asked questions that are as technical and challenging as the ones presented on this day. They wanted to know about soil profiling, photosynthesis, osmosis, plant reproduction etc. Of course, we knew the answers to these questions, but the difficult part was finding the right words to explain these concepts bearing in mind that the curious pupils were not familiar with scientific terms. Through this experience I realised the importance of a more inclusive sustainability education that can be easily understood by people of all age groups and different walks of life – the young to the old and illiterate etc. It became a learning curve for every team member but we took pride in that the entire workshop inspired the infants to warm up to science subjects! After all, these are the future custodians of our environment.
We then proceeded to the main business of the day to plant the Mango, Orange and Avocado fruit trees in their orchard. They were very enthusiastic throughout this hands-on session and some literally cried for a chance to have fun with the soil! They totally loved this session and helped to water the newly planted trees thereafter. As we were almost making our way out of the orchard, a team member noticed that one of the infants was pulling out a planted tree. She ran towards the pupil and asked why she was pulling it out and this was her response, “I am not pulling it out. You said if I planted the seedling it would grow big and now you’re leaving but I don’t see it growing. Aren’t I supposed to help it grow?”
This last question of the day absolutely blew our minds away. It further confirmed that the infants needed more time to learn and definitely needed a befitting curriculum on plant science. On the other hand, we imagined what the world would be like if everyone was equally determined to help plants grow (reasonably of course) and embark on positive activities that quicken the attainment of a more sustainable society. May this thought blow your mind away!
Project_Bliss: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bliss-locally-grown
Gillian Ndlovu
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