When was the last time any of us took a breather from the hustle-bustle of our everyday lives, stopped short in the middle of a road just to observe a tree, or the sun rays streaming in through its verdant branches? Do you remember a time in your recent past when you voluntarily cleaned a river or a beach when it was not in celebration of a one-off environment awareness day or week — eons ago, as part of some enviro club activity in school? When was the last time we looked at the environment and its conservation as an everyday affair, a continuous, organic learning process? What could possibly be the reason for this lack of consistency?
“Environmental education is not being approached from the education perspective,” believes conservation educator Ramnath Chandrasekhar. “From my experience, most environmental education programmes happen on a one-off basis — for instance, the active eco-clubs in schools or programmes conducted during world environment week are, for the most part, part of a content-driven perspective, where the focus is on saving wetlands, maintaining the ecological balance, and so on. However, without understanding the children — the learner — and without understanding oneself, in terms of the facilitator, it is hard to facilitate the learning process in school, which has been the larger problem with education for awhile now, for, the focus is more on rote-learning,” he explains.
It is in this context that earlier this year, Ramnath and his team at Youcan, launched a six-month programme — the Earth Ambassadors Fellowship — for the youth, to facilitate learning about nature and conservation, in children. The team has developed a systemic approach that provides a platform for interested youngsters to explore environmental issues, self-discovery and education. The first cohort of eight ambassadors, young graduates and working professionals applied, and seven were selected, with the support of Pravah, an organisation that aids youth development. “HLC International, in Chennai, which works closely with this Fellowship, focuses on education — how to facilitate learning in today’s context, in order to engage students better and help them become environmentally-conscious. Then there is Nelis - Next Leaders’ Initiative for Sustainability, which I am a member of. It is co-creator of the Fellowship programme, and its members have supported us in scaling it to countries around the globe. We also work with Shekar Dattatri for the conservation and communication aspects,” elaborates Ramnath.
Facilitators
“Once selected, we aid our Fellows in developing their own eco-clubs, in a school they chose or a community they are in. We connect them with resources available in nature education, help them discover their passion, and build these programmes around it for, it brings with it a great deal of authenticity.
The Fellowship’s orientation was completed in September, where the Fellows learnt different approaches in facilitating learning for children. “For instance,” explains Ramnath, “Nisha Bhakat, a chemical engineering student who is one of our Fellows, will be working on ‘lifelines in Kolkata.’ She has been working with her college to restore a patch of forest within the campus. She will be develop an eco-club, and aspires to focus on how the river is the lifeline. Here, this involves content expertise in terms of how important rivers are to the ecosystm. But, little of that content is required to communicate information to children — in education, this is referred to as ‘content mastery’. Nisha will be documenting oral narratives of people in Kolkata to show how rivers have changed, over the years. Through this, the Fellowship aims at not only supporting Nisha’s passion but to also hone her skills in imparting this knowledge to youngsters, the torch bearers of tomorrow.”
In short, the vision of Youcan, the initiative which offers this Fellowship, is to envision a world with an environmental educator in every community.
Eligibility
Specific questions are asked to applicants in terms of their passion and aptitude. Those who display a penchant and passion for the environment and those whose ideologies match those of the Fellowship are selected. Once shortlisted, they are interviewed and those who clear the interview will be inducted for training, There are no specific education qualifications required — applicants from across courses and fields are free to apply.
After selection, the Fellows will be put through three components that are a part of the Fellowship – Know the learner or your children, know the content, know yourself — in terms of the environment, what moves you, how much of the environment are you passionate about, and so on.
So, what is in it for the Fellows? It involves giving their passion for the environment an impetus, and spreading that passion to others in society. Says Nambi Rajan, one of the Fellows, “I felt my first connect with nature during my first trek to Western ghats. I still can feel the smell of the forest, the fresh cold water from streams, sleeping under stars with animals...” he trails off, reminiscently. “I realised I belonged there. Whenever I returned to the concrete jungle, with all its garbage and pollution, after my treks, I would feel the emptiness. So, instead of blaming the government and society, I am now doing my part in making our living in the city better and cleaner. I was talking to Ram last year for few documentaries to screen when I came to know about this Fellowship, and instantly applied. This will help me connect with more like-minded people and take my cause further,” he says.
For further details, visit https://www.youcan.in/earth-ambassadors
