WESSA Schools Programme Annual Report 2019/2020

PHILOSOPHY OF THE PROGRAMME The philosophy of the WESSA Schools programme has always been informed and underpinned by the understanding of the environment as a multi-dimensional concept as depicted by the diagram below:

PEACE

DEMOCRACY

Align projects to relevant local and global agendas

Mobilising public/private participation in addressing socio-economic issues – mitigating impacts on ecological infrastructure and human life

Empowering Youth and developing

Support teaching and learning in schools and communities through action learning

skills to become enviropreneurs in sustaining livelihoods

Web of life

CONSERVATION

DEVELOPMENT

TheWESSASchool Programme’sapproach isbasedonour understandingthat the environment ismultidimensional and consists of four key dimensions that are interconnected with one another. These four dimensions are the biophysical, social, political and economic. Hence the analogy of the spider web in the centre of the diagram showing that every part of the web is connected to every other part, making the web both complex and powerful. If any part is weakened or disconnected, the overall value and strength of the web is severely compromised. The environment from this perspective, the web of life, forms the foundation or basis of all the work we do in our offering of Environmental Education through the WESSA Schools Programme across South Africa. Thus, linking the environment with education , responding to our mandate and aligning with our strapline “People Caring for the Earth”. This perspective makes it possible for us to respond to the relevance, impact and sustainability issues associated with the active learning framework and project-based learning approach of our projects and programmes.

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