WESSA Schools Programme Annual Report 2019/2020

Lehutso Primary School

Zamdela, Sasolburg, Free State

MANAGE JULIET LEHUNGWANE’S STORY OF CHANGE

I am a Maths and Science Teacher at Lehutso Primary School in Zamdela, Sasolburg. As a lover of the environment, I grew up in a home where gardening used to be our hobby. My Mom and I would spend our days in the garden, planting vegetables and flowers. My love for the environment grew when I became part of the programme when I transferred from teaching at a high school to Lehutso Primary, which is my former school! I am now the Coordinator of Lehutso Primary School’s Eco-School Programme.

HOW DID YOU GET INTO WESSA SCHOOL PROGRAMMES?

Our primary school was already part of the Eco-Schools Programme. I became involved when I offered my computer skills to help others to complete their portfolios. The more I helped, the more my passion grew for the practical side of the programme. SOME OF OUR SCHOOL’S PROJECTS Lehutso Primary School has a number of projects which are ongoing. These include a food garden, recycling, arts and culture competitions, a waste project and a water project.

DEALING WITH ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES

We have a variety of issues that require attention. For example, in order to stop birds eating seedlings in our food garden we used a net, but it wasn’t large enough to cover the whole garden. We came up with the idea to collect cabbage bags from the kitchen, which we use – together with plastic – tied on sticks to prevent birds from eating

the seedlings, a solution which has worked well! There were challenges with the company that collects our recycling. Some of their own services were cut off, which meant they had to

stop collecting some materials and we ended up with a backlog of uncollected materials. We have had to simply send some of this away, because otherwise it makes a mess. We are constantly looking for ways to resolve these challenges.

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