Aflatoun Day Sustainability Challenge

Aflatoun Day Sustainability Challenge – Anglophone Africa

Posted in Aflatoun day on March 23, 2023

Tanzania - Rightway Schools

The Rightway schools have been in business for over 15 years. With the schools’ excellent programs offered in a 21st century trend, the schools also pay keen attention to its internal environment for its sustainability. The Director and owner of the school has been a forefront and good ambassador in promoting environmental conservation activities around the schools such as planting trees, attaining zero waste and preparations of the schools’ gardens by providing the required resources and assistance where necessary to accomplish these activities. Also, the members of the schools’ community (staff and learners) work hand in hand with the director in these conservational activities for the schools’ environment.

Although the schools’ gardens were prepared in early years of the beginning of the school, the gardens are being maintained by the cleaning department that is within the environmental department of the school. The gardens contain many types of flowers and trees that provide good scents, adequate fresh air and beautiful scenery within the school. The gardens are one of our finest attributes that contribute in promoting our school in the market for having a very friendly environment and conducive place for young to old children to study and enjoy themselves whenever they are in the schools’ environment.
A specific member of the cleaning staff waters, prunes, repair and plants either flowers or/and trees in the gardens and around the schools’ buildings. The gardener waters the gardens twice a day using sprinklers and at times uses water from the pipe directly connected to the source of water. In the gardens we have planted flowers such as Chamak paris, Bougainvillea plant, Tropical hibiscus flowers, Lantanas, Laki zola and Euphorbia milii; famously known as Jesus flower. We also have different types of trees such palm trees, guava trees, Ashoka trees and many other types of trees surrounding our football pitch, classes, administration building and parking yard/area. The gardens are also used as teaching aids in subjects like science in topics like the study of living things, reproduction of plants and in biodiversity and safety in Environmental education and even in creativity and arts for our learners during special events. They are also used in photoshoots from different events happening at school like graduation and many other.
At a large scale, the school has a farm of its own where there are vegetables grown like cabbage and spinach which are cooked at school for almost 700 people including learners and staff members during lunch and dinner breaks.

This has been a huge help in cutting down cost in the schools’ budget in purchasing vegetables. The school has furthered prepared an area to plant a garden of vegetables organically for the daycare learners to eat during their lunch breaks at school. In the garden, there is green
peppers, local vegetables like spinach, green Amaranth plant; famously known as mchicha etc. This project will also help the school to use fresh organic vegetables and ingredients in food preparation for our learners in Daycare but will also help the school to save money from purchasing these vegetables from the market.

The school continues to perfect and maintain these gardens and also coming up with beneficial
Environmental projects such as proper waste management through bottle and paper recycling, waste separation at source and proper waste disposal that eventually will continue to compliment on the schools’ friendly appearance and learning environment for learners, staff and all the visitors who pass by in search for our services.

Watch the video here:

Sierra Leone - ChildFund

Aflatoun Boys and Girls Social Club – Maso Village

Zimbabwe - Elevation Zimbabwe

Elevation Zimbabwe collaborated with Clean & Save in streamlining positive environment awareness and financial literacy through Aflatoun International’s Aflateen+ program.

66 young people aged between 10 – 26 years came together to pick up litter along the road and around the community center, water points, including nearby farms in Mutasa district, Zimbabwe.

The Gambia - ChildFund

Livestock as an Enterprise

Ethiopia - Dorcas Aid

Paper Art

Lideta Guenet Child and Family Empowerment Project is a partner organisation of Dorcas and
has been creating a better future for vulnerable children and improving the living status of the
upcoming generation by using the welcoming approach and creating interventions. The project
has continued to invest in the talents, personality, and mind-set of children to develop the
children holistically in their physical, social, economic, and spiritual well-being for more than 25
years.

The project is continuing to support the children in accessing education, health care,
shelter, and protection from abuse and exploitation. The project has established a community-
based child protection programme that involves parents, carers, and community leaders to ensure the safety and well-being of children. The project has also set up income-generating activities to improve the economic status of families, which in turn reduces the vulnerability of children. The focus of the project is on prevention rather than cure, and it works on building resilience among children and families through various activities such as life skills training, children’s clubs, and awareness-raising campaigns on child rights and protection.

Read more about the organisation and activities here: AFLATOUN DAY Sustainability Challenge! (1)

Zimbabwe - Abdullah Dzinamarira Foundation

Aflateen+ Club – Orchard

An orchard was started at Salvation Army Secondary School under the direction of the Abdullah Dzinamarira Foundation. The Orchard will be crucial to the success of the Aflateen + curriculum implementation at the school since it is serving as a location where teachers and teenagers are successfully collaborating to get a practical experience of the Aflateen concepts learnt through the forecasted plentiful harvests, and a source of fresh fruits. Furthermore, ADF viewed this as a chance to propel initiatives under the climate change thematic area which has a focus on a sustainable planet.

ADF realized that the orchard establishment was a great opportunity to show the nexus between sustainable utilization of land and social financial education. Through this initiative the intended outcome is the importance of sustainable finance, responsible resource management, and long–term social, economic and financial sustainability considerations in financial decisions. Agriculture is a broad subject which is imperative in the contemporary curriculum. The ADF in unison with the school formed an Aflateen + club of 24 students who will look after the orchard garden in terms of watering the garden, making the ridges, planting trees, removing weeds, and controlling pests. As part of creating a sustainable environment through afforestation, ADF staff and Ngezi Salvation army and the Aflateen + school club students came up with different types of used bottles to beautify the orchard by making ridges, to irrigate the trees with the used bottles. This was a robust initiative to recycle productively the plastic wares.

The fruits will be utilized to boost the Aflateen + club social enterprise and enhance the understanding the concepts assimilated within the curriculum. This recycling method of using used bottles is very helpful in sense that it conserves energy, reduces water population, and even reduces greenhouses.

Our garden is fenced right round as a way of protecting our trees from perpetrators such as wild animals and theft.

Kenya - Dorcas Aid

Gardening and Taking Care of the Environment

Zimbabwe - Tariro Foundation of Zimbabwe Trust

Tariro Foundation of Zimbabwe Trust is an Organisation for persons with Disabilities (OPD)
based in Mutare, Zimbabwe. The organisation as it is implementing its Social skills and Financial
education programme with support from Aflatoun International is reaching out to adolescent
youths including those with disabilities. The organisation is reaching out to rural communities to
capacitate the adolescent youths and caregiver with the social skills and financial literacy skills to
prepare them for adulthood and learn to save and earn for their personal needs. The organisation has partnered government departments giving services to also assist share expert knowledge to adolescent youths and of particular interest Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council, National AIDS Council, Zimbabwe Republic Police, Ministry of Health among others.
Topical issues in Zimbabwe include Child marriages, Teen pregnancies, drugs and substance
abuse and gender based violence. The pressing challenges are adequately attended to by the
relevant stakeholder.

As an organisation we have started rolling out skills training to the adolescent youths for them
to acquire self reliant skills that will empower them to desist from habits that are disastrous to
their personal health and participation. Training in sewing, knitting, carpentry, hairdressing,
motor mechanics and detergents manufacturing that increase household incomes and promote
them to become responsible within their families and communities.

Working with stakeholders and making the community appreciate the benefits of the Social
skills and financial literacy programme in this era has brought some commitment to focus on
fighting the existing challenges through imparting knowledge from the programme. The project
has also targeted hotspots and try to capacitate the adolescent youths to whom some are young
mothers.