We caught up with Pure Skills to find out how they have gone about educating the community and whether they have seen an improvement.
How do have you gone about educating the community?
The Women’s groups and our team have been instrumental in community educations, along with partnerships with local NGO’s. We work to understand what impact’s each community most. So as an example is their asthma and breathing problems? Does this matter, and do the community care? Then we’d still do a full workshop but look at how we dispose of waste and how what we use has a big impact on the health of a community. A lot of show and tell, with practical solutions. Asking communities if they can tell us in their own words how they are impacted by current methods of disposing of waste. What do they think they can do differently? Culminating in workshops on how to re-use waste for a purpose or income for those that wish to learn.
Have you seen an improvement in understanding?
Most definitely yes we have seen improvements in understanding and a willingness to change behaviours to support the environment, and benefit the community. There is still a long way to go, though. However, it’s wonderful to see how eloquently and practically our local staff, women’s groups and NGO’s can relay the information in a way everyone understands both practically and on an intellectual level. There is always a lot of laughter, fun, questions and suggestions which shows real engagement.