INTERVIEW WITH ELISA PALLANGYO

Tanzania Forest Conservation Group, Tanzania

City where the organisation is based: Dar es Salaam
Number of staff in the organisation/working with Eco-Schools: 151/3

What do you prefer?

Dogs or cats? Dogs
Sea or mountains? Both
Chocolate or chips? Chips
Film or book? Both
City or countryside? Countryside
Favourite word or phrase: Conservation for the future
If you could sing one song in a music competition show on television, what would it be?

Water flows from Morogoro mountains

What is the funniest thing that has happened to you recently?

I was in a vehicle when I saw two people fighting for empty plastic bottles. Some years back, empty plastic bottles were a problem because there was no recycling. The guys were fighting for the bottles because nowadays you sell them and get money. It's business.

A high point of the programme, hopes and visions

The high point of the programme is that schools, communities, and the government have been inspired in implementing the Eco-Schools programme at all levels, and aim at achieving sustainable development. The dream/hopes/vision of the programme is to see school children becoming young leaders in promoting environmental awareness, becoming environment and society change agents, and the schools becoming advocates for a better world.

Activities by the Tanzania Forest Conservation Group

Activities include:

Teacher training: Teacher training is organised where most programme schools are represented. In total the programme is run at 20 primary schools in the Mvomero district
Eco-Schools Committee training: The Eco-Schools programme has only just recently started in Tanzania. After establishing the Eco-Schools committee, training sessions were organised to ensure that the committees were conversant with the programme. 20 Eco-Schools Committees have been established
Facilitating and supporting of micro-projects: About 17 schools are now running micro-projects at their schools
Awareness raising on recycling: Due to the huge amount of waste collected, we identified a need for raising awareness pertaining to the recycling process of waste.

An inspiring story by the Tanzania Forest Conservation Group

Lusanga Primary School: Lusanga Primary School joined the Eco-Schools programme in June 2015. The school commenced the programme by establishing an Eco-Schools Committee, developing an Environmental Review, and identifying challenges including the inadequate number of teachers, soil erosion, waste management, deforestation and scarcity of water, poor sanitation, etc. The school prepared the Action Plan and started addressing the challenges; Monitoring and Evaluation was implemented, and the school slowly started alleviating these challenges. They also improved the curriculum by using a learner-centred approach. Lusanga School is now a different school compared to those that do not participate in the programme.

The neighbouring schools and communities were inspired by what was happening at Lusanga School and now go to Lusanga for study visits to try and replicate activities at their schools and communities. Within a very short time, Lusanga is now an Eco-Schools model.