Advocacy​

 

We made an advocacy powerpoint that we have used to promote the Eco Club at assemblies and to make students aware what it is we are trying to achieve.  Tell us what you think about it.    

 

 

We have also received a grant from the Westville Rotary for An Advocacy Project that incudes the following elements:

 

T Shirts  -  

 

Button Badges - 

 

Advocacy Board for WGHS Eco School - 

 

'Eco code' Board to be placed up somehwere in the school - 

 

See the visuals in the prezi presentation that was presented to Rotary Westville at their evening function.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have also been responsible to feeback to the monthly Governing Body meetings via the Principal Ms Raw.

Here is some examples of the reports sent through.  I am happy to report that as of November we will be presenting to the GBody and they will be supplying us with a Gb representative for our Eco School Programme Committee.

 

Eco-club Activities - 2013

 

Themes covered are:

Theme 1 - Local & Global Issues   (these are Rhino poaching,

Theme 2 - Nature & Biodiversity

Theme 3 – Resource use

Theme 4 – Healthy Living   * theme introduced this year

 

We have had to introduce a 4th theme to our portfolio this year in order to get our 4th consecutive year as an Eco School Flag status and be awarded our flag at the end of this year.

 

Activities

Terms 1, 2 , 3

Displays – changed termly

• In the Lecture theatre Corridor -  Term 1    Eco Schools advocacy display 

•  Term 2 theme of Healthy Living what we eat is who we are

•  Term 3 Save the Rhino Campaign

 

• Electricity and Water usage display – ongoing graph

• Save water posters in the bathrooms

 

Introduced the Grade 8 recycling project run by Mishka Karodia and this was so successful we carried it over into the 3rd term. We would like to set up a proper recycling area in the school to be able to benefit financially from recycling efforts.  We are recycling glass, plastic and tins.

Mrs Reid takes the recyclables collection away each month, but we could arrange collection for money if we increased this effort.

 

We are running a Save the Rhino Campaign – CNA RED Horn purchases with all funds raised going to the Save the Rhino Campaign. We have had Rhino assemblies for each grade.

 

Maintenance of the Wetlands area and introduction of tilapia fish into the pond to control mosquitoes problem.

 

Alien ‘Whacking’ every term to remove Invasive Aliens from our school gardens and surrounds

 

Discovered that we have bats returning to our environment  to eat the fruit of the Waterberry tree in May June when it is in fruit.   We are going to be doing research into BATS, which kind, etc.

 

The Eco Club have started veggie and herb gardening, with a view to selling our produce and creating an awareness of healthy foods – organic and naturally grown.  We sold our first crop just before the July holidays.  We conducted a survey of the tuckshop and also of the eating habits and lifestyles of the WGHS girls. We are busy compiling this data for presentation.

 

We attended the WESSA Open Day at the Mangroves and had a stall selling Consol Glass water bottles, Greenpop Tree Rings (a greening with Trees project) and we also raised awareness of the Rhino poaching by raffling x3 wire rhino head which a local wire maker made for us.

 

We also introduced the Consol Solar Jar as an energy saving device for homes and sold these to the school community. ( Father’s Day presents etc.)

 

We attended the Eco-School Mini conference at Manor Gardens and had a stall at which we sold our bottle, solar jars, displayed the winter warmth blankets etc.  Great awareness and networking.

 

Tree Identification and labelling project.  Arbor Day Celebrations by planting a tree and taking out an invasive alien.

 

Together with our Greenpop tree rings project ( each class to buy a key ring for their class keys and they will be given the GPS co-ordinates for their tree and can find it on Google maps.)

 

 

 

Eco Club Facilitator

Irene Reid

 

May Meeting 2014

Eco club Report   22 May GB Meeting 2014

 

Monthly Beach clean up

Attendance at the monthly beach clean up to take place athe Bay of Plenty on the 24th May at 9.00am.

 

New Display board display on Recycling

Students re worked the display to promote recycling and inform students onthe lengths of time materials take to decompose.

 

Rotary Project funding Application

The Eco club set off 6 project proposals to obtain funding at the request of Westville rotary.

The  suggested projects were

• The establishment of a Recycling Depot,

• Gardening equipment & water Harvesting for the Veggie gardening,

• Advocacy campaign material – eg. T shirts and badges and an eco- code  sign for the school.

•  Subz panty & pads Project still in incubation stage with Mrs Singh.

• Reforestation of the southern boundary treed area with indigenous trees and shrubs , removal of the alien vegetation aound the school - working with Westville Conservancy.

• Fixing of the filtration  problems in the wetlands through consultation with Wetlands expert and use of filtration planting.

 

Permaculture Gardening Course

Mrs Reid, Sai Angappan and Mrs Roos attended the Permaculture Cargeding Workshop held at The Birches Pre Primary School. We will be teaching the Eco girls the principles of this type of gardening when we start planting our veggies this week Tuesday 20th..

We are going to try to organise a Workshop to be run at school for the students.  The cost is R210 for a full day workshop.

 

East Coast Lions & Futurewise Science & Enviro Quiz

We registered to take part in the Futurewise Science & Enviro Quiz which took place on Saturday 17 May 2014, at Maris Stella. We used students who had entered and done well in the General knowledge quiz with Mrs Clarke on activities day.  We entered 2 teams of two girls.  They had to study the Environmental aspects of the quiz.

 

Team 1 and Team 2 made it through to the Final Round, but they were eliminated in the finals. Team 1 were awarded the Fair Play Trophy .

 

Team 1

Sibusisiwe Mancotywa

Nitara Chandika

Team 2

Ekta Bramdev

Rhea Naidoo

 

 

October Meeting 2014

 

Hi Catherine,

 

 

• We are busy putting together the Eco School Portfolio for our International Flag award.  The submission is due at the end of October 2014.   We have started a website as our submission as it is the best way to record our achievements without wasting paper  at the same time.

• We have also revisited our Codes and it would be great if you could show the GB the codes Ms J devised and perhaps ask them if they are happy with them. I have attached them.  Ms Bothma and I have chatted about a joint music competition next year with Grade 10 & 11 students where they create a music video/rap about the Eco Codes.

• Lastly we are busy with whole school review in which we try to survey the entire school with the Form 2 supplied by WESSA. These results inform our planning for the next year and also highlight strengths and weaknesses which we then worked with or improve upon.  It would be great if collectively the GB could submit 1 form with their views. I have attached the form. This would be the first time we would have solicited GB input in to our Portfolio.

• We also talked about the possibility of having yourself & the one of the GB (who is environmentally informed & concerned) come and talk with us about how the school could move forward with things like rainwater harvesting, solar heating and talk about our projects we have received Rotary funding for.

 

Enjoy the meeting

 

 

 

Irene Reid

 

 

We have one Eco Angel that was chosento be interviewed by the Independent Newspapers as one of the outstanding Enviornmental Youth Leaders in our City.  Mishka truly embodies our philosophy of making a difference one girl at a time...

 

Here is the article written by Liz Clarke, a newspaper journalist.

 

Recycling and renewable energy are subject close to Mishka Karodia’s heart. She told Liz Clarke that it is up to her generation to save the planet from further destruction

 

“Once you understand the scary things that are happening to our planet, it starts to haunt you,” says 17-year-old Mishka. “It’s not something that will go away. We have to face the challenge – even in a small way.”

 

For this grade 11 learner at Westville Girls’ High, the beginning of her save-the-earth journey is to promote the importance of recycling amongst the grade 8s and 9s and hopefully in the future, the entire school.

 

“It is like zero tolerance. You have to start at home and in your school,” she says. “When I see litter and people throwing rubbish away without a thought of what it is doing to the environment, it really hurts inside and somehow I feel guilty even though I’m not the person doing it.

 

I first started this process when I was in grade 10 and I realized that my school didn’t have a fully functional recycling depot. My aim was then to create a recycling scheme amongst the grade 8s as a small project to determine how the students would react. Since the first year of this scheme, last year, was a major success I decided to add another grade this year, the grade 9s [last year’s grade 8s] and so through this process I’m building up a growing interest amongst them as well as forming a good habit of recycling so that by the time the grade 8s of 2014 reach Matric, our school will have a fully functional recycling depot that they will be proud of. It’s an extremely long process but it’s paying off.

 

At the moment we have huge plans to establish our first recycling depot at our school, due to the help our Westville Rotary, and even though my grade may not benefit from it, it’s really more about the students that come after the years that I have matriculated.

The good thing, says Mishka, is that the recycling process with paper, plastics, cans, glass and even batteries has grown from ‘little interest’ to a real passion amongst all the learners at her school. “They take the message home and I think that is how the awareness is starting to grow big time.”

On the negative side, she says, is that we do not have a company to pick up our recyclable items which has added up to an average of approximately 20 bin bags full of recyclable materials just from the grade 8s and 9s.

“On many occasions we have to take the bags of litter and dispose of them ourselves at the Pavilion recycling site in Westville.”

 

She doesn’t see this as a setback, but rather a challenge to make “the community voice” heard. “I know there are many families in some of the poorer areas who are very keen to recycle their household litter, but if there is no encouragement or support from the authorities, it is very difficult. Again it’s about making our voices heard.”

Mishka is a committed member of the WGHS Eco club and this is their first year as of being a part of their school’s Interact Club and Rotary Team, a facility for young people aged 12-18 who want to connect with other young people in their community or school about relevant issues.

 

“It is platforms like this that help us to get these important messages out there.”

The next stage of Mishka’s environmental journey is to learn “all there is to know” about renewable energy.

“I have seen what miracles can be done through the recycling of waste at a local level, which is then turned into energy and I find it absolutely amazing. When you think of the mountains of waste that we accumulate every day of the year and how it could help light up our cities, drive our industries and heat our homes, you realize what huge potential there is to clean up our act. I hope that one day I can be at the forefront of making our planet a healthier and safer place.”

 

At the end of her Matric year [next year], Mishka plans to study for a degree, with a special interest in renewable energy.

 

lizclarke4@gmail.com