Eco Club Summit 2023

Nothing is more satisfying than joining hands and engaging with over 150 school children from 17 districts of Nepal to help design sustainable activities through Eco Clubs in schools. Sustainability Solutions partnered with WWF Nepal at the Eco Club Summit 2023 to educate government officials, teachers, and students on how schools can take action to make schools a Waste Free Zone by 2023. This entailed actively encouraging schools to consider sustainability aspects in school operations, procurement, and management.

We delivered a fun and interactive workshop for the students on designing eco club activities and plans. Students were first asked to write purpose of eco clubs considering their learning needs and growth. Then the students used drawing boards to create an area map of their schools and surrounding environment. Based on the area resource map, design activities were conducted to help students brainstorm multitude of activities. Some creative ideas that were presented were on how students can actively engage with communities to keep surrounding heritages and temples clean and how nearby water bodies can be used to learn about aquatic diversity and ecosystem. The workshop also taught students on how to identify resources to carry out the activities, costing and budgeting for activities, and identifying partners, facilitators, and funding sources for eco clubs. Finally, students were asked to prioritize key activities that they would undertake in the upcoming school year.

Sustainability Solutions also organized learning games during the summit. To lighten up the students and help introduce themselves with children from other schools, we organized “Human Bingo”. Students had to go around the hall trying to identify and meet new people based on clues provided in the Bingo sheet. Students loved this interactive ice break session.

Before the summit began, we organized games like Resource Race, Heads Up, and Monkey – Tiger – Tree (a nature-themed version of Rock – Paper – Scissors). In the Resource Race, students were asked to form teams of 10 members. They were given limited number of recycled newspaper as “resources” that they had to use as stepping stones to reach their destination. Two members were blindfolded too. If the team did not care for the resources or left it behind, then the volunteers took away the resources. At the end of the game, all teams were asked what they learned from the game. Words like teamwork, helping others, collaboration, planning, and many great learnings were identified. The games were summed up by giving a valuable lesson that we need to take care of our resources – environmental and social – while we pursue our goals and head towards our destination and future. Heads Up game was designed so that students would ask questions about an animal they picked which would result in themselves and the crowd learning key facts about the animal. Monkey – Tiger – Tree game showcased the importance of forests in maintaining the biodiversity and ecosystem.