The E&S Programme

Liesl Kent , regional co-ordinator for the Eskom Energy Programme writes:

I work for a project called Facing Up that works with youth at risk in Lavender Hill. The project is currently based at two health promoting schools in the area: Zerilda Park Primary and Levana Primary. The project was started seven years ago by Roshan Galvaan, a senior occupational therapy lecturer at the University of Cape Town. Facing Up aims to enable learners to reflect on their own situations and circumstances in order to encourage them to make choices that enable them to become agents of change rather than victims of their own circumstances. We do this through the use of active doing experiences, which we as occupational therapists call "occupation." In 2005 Facing Up was able to secure funding from the Eskom Energy and Sustainability programme for carrying out environmental learning experiences with a focus on energy and sustainability issues. We decided to use these environmental projects as the "means" in our intervention. In other words we used the environmental projects as the "occupation" which was so necessary in the process.

"EnergyWise" was a project that was carried out by a group of learners in 2005. The focus was on the development of the learners agentic potential while at the same time they learnt about environmental issues that contributed to the development of a sustainable future. Through the project the learners learnt much about working as a team for their own community's development while at the same time they realised much about their own potential as agents of change. They entered the project in the ETA awards which is a national awards programme sponsored by Eskom. They tied for 1st place in this competition winning themselves, the schools involved and Facing Up R30 000. At the beginning of this year we made a team decision to enter the project into the international VolvoAdventure Awards which we had heard about from the national co-ordinator of the Eskom Energy and Sustainability Programme, who had previously entered the competition in 2005 and won first prize.

When asked about how the group had grown through this experience the learners commented as follows: "We became wiser consumers of energy"; "we learnt we can make a change in our own community"; "We learnt you don't need to be a grown up to teach others about what is important"; "we learnt that to be successful you need to work hard"; "we learnt that even though we are important we have something important to say"

The group of girls call themselves the "Energy Girls." When they heard they had been selected to attend the finals in Gothenburg in Sweden they were overcome with excitement. The opportunity to travel overseas and perform on the world stage is once in a lifetime. Facing Up and the Eskom Energy and Sustainability Programme values these particular kinds of experiences that develops learners potential. We believe that it is important to look for such opportunities in which learners can take part in order to develop their agency - this is why VolvoAdventure was such an amazing opportunity for these girls.

The group had a wonderful 4 days in Sweden with fun activities and meeting the other 15 international groups. The presentation of their project took place in a massive auditorium before a panel on judges from UNEP, Volvo, and environmental education authorities. They were placed third before Indonesia (first) and New Zealand (second).

We thank the Eskom Energy and Sustainability Programme for their continued support in funding the work that is done with children in Lavender Hill and making environmental and social learning possible.