Nedbank supporting environmental education

The Go Green Fund has been co-funded by Nedbank and the Namibia Nature Foundation (NNF) since 2011. The Fund aims to enhance conservation and protect natural resources in the country.

On its 14th anniversary in 2015, the Minister of Environment and Tourism, Pohamba Shifeta, applauded the Fund for the valuable contributions it has made to support the country’s biodiversity.

“Along with the wide variety of successful projects, the longevity of the Go Green Fund is testament to the effective collaboration of the Namibia Nature Foundation and Nedbank in its implementation,” he said at the time. “This type of institutional collaboration is vitally important to assist in good biodiversity conservation outcomes, and sets a good example for others to follow.”

The Fund has since raised millions of dollars for funding more than 40 environmental projects across Namibia, such as the Khomas Environmental Education Programme (KEEP). This interactive environmental education programme was designed by and is implemented by the Giraffe Conservation Foundation (GCF). Since 2015, over ten thousand learners have benefitted from the KEEP programme.

Environmental education programmes offered by non-governmental (NGOs) and civil society organisations are a new teaching method in terms of changing attitudes and habits of citizens to address the challenges affecting the world and its people.

KEEP brings students from across the region to participate in field excursions at Daan Viljoen Game Reserve on the outskirts of Windhoek. The programme mainly focuses on hosting groups of Grade 3 and 4 learners accommodating more than two thousand five hundred annually in a pre-Covid year.

With the support of Nedbank Go Green Fund GCF helps to educate Namibia's future leaders, explains Stephanie Fennessy, the co-director and co-founder of the GCF. She points out the programme helps young people connect with nature and seeks to build a culture of environmental awareness, social responsibility and action in the country. And because it’s aligned to the Namibia national school curriculum, students and teachers apply principles that are familiar from the classroom while spending a day in the bush in an interactive, fun and practical experience.

Participation

Educators of sustainable development are grateful that KEEP continues inviting teachers and heads of departments to attend. Participation allows for the enhancement of their environmental knowledge and skills and to experience the adventurous field-based programme their students participate in. It also avails the opportunity to gain new tools for establishing environmental clubs at their respective schools.

The team is confident to reach out to more schools in the near future. During the last quarter of 2020, KEEP hosted an impressive 633 students (322 girls and 311 boys) and 50 teachers from 12 different schools and organisations, always adhering to the Covid-19 health protocols by wearing masks, sanitizing and maintaining social distance.

Fennessy says that participation has increased during 2021. “Since the beginning of this year, our team has hosted 1 064 students and 22 teachers so far. This means that we’ve already had more participants than in all of 2020. We look forward to schools reopening and continuing to implement the project.”

“KEEP aims to connect Namibian learners with their environment and show them how beautiful their own country is. While schools in Namibia have closed face-to-face teaching again, the KEEP team hopes to be able to reach out to primary schools in the Khomas region soon and is looking forward to the prospect of taking primary school students into the field again soon,” the passionate environmentalist says.