Environmental Education Programme with JHA Fund & GIZ’s Kit MAD’ERE
Supported By
Aust & Hachmann is committed to the long-term interests of the vanilla communities of Madagascar. Sponsoring several local programs and projects, our primary focus is on education. “With basic instruction, the people residing in the vanilla communities of Madagascar will be able to take control of their lives financially. With a basic primary level education (and eventually higher), vanilla farmers and their families will have the tools needed to gain more control over the vanilla trade on a domestic and international level.” -David van der Walde, Aust & Hachmann (Canada) LTD.
“KIT MAD’ERE” – is a tool for primary schools developed by the GIZ, a German based service provider in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development and international education + the École Normale Supérieure University of Antananarivo.The focal point is to improve teaching methods and introduce environmental education into the primary learning program.
The program aims to support primary school teachers to work more effectively by compiling teaching tools in one easy to carry satchel and equipping educators with stimulating materials for their pupils, including effective visual aids that help them to introduce environmental insight into the school curriculum.
The goal of Aust & Hachmann Canada Ltd., JHA Fund, GIZ, and CISCO (Government School Districts of Madagascar) is to increase the number of teachers trained and resourced in the environmental education program called “KIT MAD’ERE”. All with the aim to expand the amount of school children reached in the vanilla growing communities of “the SAVA”. SAVA: Sambava, Antalaha, Vohemar et Andapa.
Aust & Hachmann Canada Ltd. and JHA Fund are grateful to their donors for supporting our goals as part of our objective in mutual development. This values the insights and culture of the farmers and their villages as key inputs to improving farming community livelihoods, the local environment, and sustainable and quality vanilla. Teaching children in the SAVA to safeguard the environment will make it possible to continue growing the supply of quality sustainable and traceable vanilla and to improve longer-term grower incomes, now and into the future.
Every year the environment in Madagascar is badly destroyed by artificial fires. Burning lands and forests is a tradition in Madagascar (“slash and burn” locally known as tavy). The destruction of the environment will soon reach the point of no return and so communities need to be supported to protect the environment.
The best way to do this is through proper education, beginning in primary schools and continuing through to the university level.
JHA Fund’s qualified trainers host 4-day workshops for school teachers in the SAVA region. The teachers leave with training, a certificate and a KIT, filled with materials designed to be easily incorporated into school lessons, to teach their students year after year. Two teachers share a KIT during the course and at the end of the training, the KIT MAD’ERE satchels are allocated to the school at which they work.
The KIT MAD’ERE consists of 16 elements—made of simple, easy-to-find raw materials like cardboard, fabric, paper, wood, glue, velcro, pins, painting jars and colored pencils—inside a big zipped backpack, weighing around 10 kg.
The posters included are used to initiate classroom discussions and educate pupils about environmental issues, while the pockets on the inside of the backpack hold hand drawn pictures on cardboard of flora, vegetation, community and environmental activities.
Creativity and enthusiasm are encouraged to heighten learning that transcends the classroom and improves critical and creative thinking skills.
The project aims to strengthen the capacity of Malagasy communities to protect the environment, starting from the elementary school level. In the long-term, the program hopes to create a generation of environmentally aware citizens that improve the forest and protected area and help the vanilla farms to thrive.
• At least 100 teachers trained per school year
• Over 6,000 students being exposed to this program per year (each classroom has approximately 50-80 students)
• Long-term deforestation prevention and environmental protection as children are taught to value and protect the land
AIMING TO PREVENT DEFORESTATION & FOREST DEGRADATION
Results of the Programme
• 2 certified teachers in the use of the KIT MAD’ERE Program + 3 trained assistants
• 257 total elementary school teachers trained in the KIT MAD’ERE methodology
• 120 KIT MAD’ERE backpacks distributed and taken back to community classrooms in the SAVA region
• With the 257 trained teachers so far, this converts to over 15 000 students per year being exposed to KIT MAD’ERE in the vanilla region (primary level classes host anywhere from 50-80 students per classroom)
Thank you!
A sincere personal thank you to those that funded this specific project through JHA Fund:
Takeo Hama of Tokyo, Shahid Hadi of Mississauga, Jean-François L’archevêque Montpetit of Repentigny, the Wolofsky family of Montreal and the Aust & Hachmann families in both Montreal and Hamburg.
A HUGE thank you MISAOTRA and congratulations to Ertice and his assistant Romela, bravo! Thank you for organizing and teaching the training sessions with incredible enthusiasm, acquiring the space at FJKM school, and for taking care of the little details like making sure everyone had water to drink etc… We’d also like to thank FJKM school for the classroom and especially thank you to the School District Supervisor “Chef CISCO” of Antalaha for approving the course, attending, and for supporting Ertice and his group throughout the training sessions. Last but not least, a sincere misaotra betsaka to Annie and Fitz from GIZ Antananarivo for all your support and encouragement throughout. We are all pleased to be collaborating with GIZ in the essential area of environmental education training of primary school teachers in the SAVA region and look forward to further collaboration in the future.