Sustainability Education Pt 2- Women's Groups
Click here to review Pt 1
Prior to our arrival, Kocebuka Community Foundation sent out the word of sustainability education to women’s groups in Zimba. We planned for two day-long lessons to teach as many women as we could. Cynthia and I prepared lessons at home, trying to provide the basics with the assumption that they didn’t have any prior climate change education, and trying to tailor the information to their local issues.
On the Monday of our second week, we got our computer and headed to Kocebuka’s office ready to teach. After a few “we have a small crisis” notifications from Passwell concerning the location of the lessons, we finally settled into the same classroom Stephen taught his computer lessons in (very small and hot).
TEACHING
Our first day of lessons had an attendance of 37 women (and a pretty large number of babies with the women- at least 10 of them). Cynthia and I began our lessons by describing what climate and climate change is, and then dove into the causes of climate change. Once we got into the local effects of climate change, they were able to personally relate, which made it much easier for us to connect concepts. We took a poll to see how many of them had been directly affected by the erratic rain patterns, and every one of them put their hands up. We asked how many of them had something destroyed by the rains, like crops or their house, and again they all put their hands up.
WOMAN THE PROVIDER
I wanted to know more about how they, as a vulnerable group, were most affected by these rains. They took turns explaining their personal issues, and most of the women agreed that they shared the same problems. If the aquifer dries up due to drought, they are the ones who have to travel far distances to bring water to their family. This means they have to wake up an absurd hour in the morning, which of course makes them exhausted during the day, and affects their ability to provide income for their family. Most of the women put their hands up that this has happened to them. For the women who lived on a farm, they explained that if their crops failed, the monetary loss was their burden, as they had to provide for their husband and children. Example after example, every problem that the erratic rain patterns caused, they were the ones responsible for resolving. More often than not, they don’t have the means to. This is why Zambia is seeing a large problem with food insecurity, among other issues. I was shocked at how many of them were affected so deeply, and admired their drive to make a change by coming to these lessons. It was clear that they were concerned about what was happening in their community and wanted to know more about the causes.
Mono buys charcoal to cook lunch for the women
Through engagement, we began to see that most of them were aware of the connection between deforestation and local climate change, but didn’t quite understand why or what they could do to stop it. We explained how trees control the water cycle, which affects Zimba on a local scale, and how trees control the carbon cycle, affecting the atmosphere and climate change on a global scale.
Zambia’s deforestation is driven by the lack of access to sustainable energy, and most people rely on charcoal for cooking and heating. After we explained how deforestation contributes to greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and burning charcoal added even more, they asked what they could do to change it. How could we tell them to burn less charcoal when they literally had no other way of cooking- they can hardly afford to buy charcoal, let alone solar panels.
Glaciers fading from Mt. Kilimanjaro
They wanted to make a change because they are affected personally; we aren’t driven to change because for us, climate change is a half-degree increase in heat. If we receive intense rains, the roofs of our schools don’t get blown off and our roads don’t get destroyed.
REFORESTATION
We explained the sustainable energy solutions we have in other parts of the world and acknowledged that this wasn’t a practical solution for Zambia right now. Even though women are subject to inequality, they still account for half of the population and hold power in numbers. We suggested that reforestation would be a huge project if they wanted to offset the effects of the massive deforestation rate in their country. However, if they worked together, not only could they be a force in upping the number of trees, but could educate others and eventually influence government in controlling deforestation and implementing a reforestation plan. We encouraged them to not only spread education to other women as a vulnerable group in Zambia, but to the men as well. Even if the men aren’t as responsible for taking care of their families, no father wants his child to be pulled out of school because the classroom has been destroyed from flooding, or see his family in despair. We tried to stress their importance and power as a group, and how much knowledge can make a difference.
A very bad picture of Cynthia and I teaching
We encouraged the planting of the Moringa Tree, which is drought-resistant, easy to grow, and all of its parts are useful. Among the incredible uses of its parts, such as biofuel (potentially), water purification, medicine, and fertilizer, the seeds contain a superfood-like amount of vitamins and the tree is already being used in Southern African countries to combat food insecurity. This is a great article outlining how the tree can benefit Zambia:
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-30504720
One woman told her story of how she planted a moringa tree because her dad had high blood pressure, and she heard that parts of the tree could be used to lower blood pressure. Amazingly, she said it worked for her father! Another woman said how she had moringa trees in her yard, among other fruit trees. She expressed to the other women in the room the importance of planting a diversity of trees, as they all provide different fruits and different benefits.
Overall, the first day of lessons seemed to be a success. The women were pleased about getting Environmental Lesson certificates and were incredibly gracious about the new knowledge they received. However, I couldn’t help but feel a little deflated. Here were 37 women (and about 10 babies) who were deeply impacted by local climate change and came to our lesson to learn how to make a change. It felt heartbreaking to tell them it was their charcoal burning and lumber usage that was contributing, and that we couldn’t offer a seemingly impactful or practical solution. It seems as though Zambia is a long way away from combating climate change, and they could be without trees in just a few years. In my next post, I will talk about the second day of lessons with a different group of women. It took this next day for me to get a better understanding of the issues they face and their determination to address these issues. Only after this day, with the positivity of the women, that I began to feel optimistic about the future of Zambia’s climate.
The women receive their certificates