WESSA Glencore report 2022

Makause Combined School

SKILLS LEARNED BY THE LEARNERS

school is in a mining area which is having a huge impact to our environment and climate.

Makause Combined School is situated at Tweetfontein around the Tweetfontein mine under the region of Emalahleni in Mpumalanga. The school comprises of learners from mixed households affected by high unemployment rate in the area. Makause Combined School is glad to have taken the first step in joining the WESSA Eco- Schools Programme with aim of raise awareness about environmental protection and reducing their energy consumption.

Patience , sowing needs patience as gardening needs time and seeds needs to germinate and mature before being harvested. Responsibility , learners needed to take ownership of the garden by preparing the beds, ploughing, weeding, and watering to ensure growth of seedlings. Self-confidence , with the knowledge learned from the eco teacher and the coordinator on what is needed to make a garden successful the learners gained confidence to go int their communities and practice these skills.

Ogies

Teachers and learners wanted to take action to advocate for the environment for a sustainable future. After completing their electricity audit the school concluded that it was consuming too much energy in an unsustainable manner therefore, they came up

with an approach to use energy eco saving bulbs and only switch on the

THE ECO JOURNEY

Makause Combined School joined the WESSA Eco- Schools Programme in 2018 with a warm welcome, positive partnership and commitment from the coordinator willing to go an extra mile to assist in overcoming the schools’ environmental challenges.

lights when it is needed.

A new theme has been added which is the waste theme where the Eco committee is focusing on

The Energy theme was focused on the sustainable use of energy in the school The

ECO-SCHOOLS PROJECTS

The team focused on various projects with the school liaising with the help of the coordinator. The first project started was the sustainable vegetable garden. The vegetable garden is used as an outdoor learning model for hands on activities which are linked with the curriculum subjects Mathematics, Arts, Natural Sciences and Business Studies The vegetable garden equipped the learners with knowledge of where the food they consume comes from and an understanding of the life process of each plant until its mature stage before being harvested. The food garden has helped equip learners with knowledge but also assisted in supplementing the schools nutritional feeding scheme as some learners depend on the feeding scheme

implementing their waste management plan. There is an active recycling project at the school and making of Eco-bricks to reduce plastic waste in the school ground Makause Combined School wishes to grow the recycling project into an income generating project to financially support other projects

eMalahleni Glencore Eco-Schools Project: IMPACT REPORT 2022 19