Published: November 18, 2019

Hi, my name is Silke Goos, since November 2018 I am working with the Partner Organisation AFIRD and I would like to tell you more about our project that I am fully convinced of. The project deals with permaculture trainings in primary schools by using the ILUD approach. ILUD stands for Integrated Land Use Design. It is an approach whereby all school stakeholders (pupil, teacher, parents, founders) are participatory involved in transforming their school.

Since 2014 AFIRD is supporting schools to design conducive learning environment with healthy and dust-free cross ventilation in the classrooms. Schools are changing very much and even the spirit within the community.

Ms. Musimenta a parent at one school testified on how her daughters are implementing the new garden technologies at home. Furthermore one school reported, that children are no longer shun away garden work, they take participation as a form of leisure.

As a teacher I can recommend this approach highly to schools. Learners combine theoretical knowledge with practical life skills. The learners grow their own crops organically without using chemical fertilizers or sprays. The nature provides plants which could be used as repellents for pests and diseases. The learning environment becomes conducive as they plant a lot of fruit trees for own consumption. The pupils also grow herbs and spices and learn the usage of medical plants, herbs for teas and spices for kitchen usage. Even the traditional knowledge of their grandparents is integrated in this concept. The approach is holistical and produces awareness for the environment among the school stakeholder.

Next year, in 2020, we plan to move to another district. Here we will use the same approach, but also implement in schools with which we start working (5) environmentally friendly energy saving stoves, which are not common in schools in this area. There will be also a cooking course for the mother-group. AFIRD will train the mother-group in preparing healthy food and a balanced diet. Next year I will report on this.

The youths are the future and can easily adapt innovations and are always eager to learn. Let’s go green and organic.

We also capitalized our experience! Find the corresponding One-Pager and In-Detail document by clicking on the following button:

I would love to hear about your experiences in the comments below! Do you face similar challenges in your work? Can you draw any parallels to your projects?