7 Global Schools Advocates are recognized as Advocates of the Month for their contributions to Education for Sustainable Development.
Encarnación López Mateo, Spain
Encarni has had the pleasure to share her advocacy with her colleagues at GSD school in Madrid. Her students have been an inspiration for her work as an Advocate since they are committed to SDGs as the best way to make this a better world. Together, we will make it happen! So far, Encarnación has conducted a workshop for 29 teachers in her school. She has introduced the SDGs, and students have researched each one of them; her students have also designed a logo for some of the SDGs so that they could be more relatable to other age groups. Her students created a slogan for their fight for SDGs: GSD is SDG (GSD is the name of her school, which contains the same letters as SDG). When her English B IB students were researching, reading, working on life expectancy, happiness, and well-being, they reflected on their contribution to the world from their future jobs’ perspectives and tackled each one of the SDGs. Some of her students have entered a writing contest inspired by the 2030 Agenda. The school is also working to bring sustainable development awareness to the parents. In fact, some of the parents have contacted the school to provide them with educational material designed by their companies on sustainable development. Her school has also hosted a variety of school-wide events, including an “Awareness Day for the Blind” where Paralympic athletes were invited to the school and a “Breast Cancer Awareness Day” on October 20th. Additionally, the established Leisure Club managed by GSD students and alumni has agreed to introduce SDGs in future activities. In the local community, her students attended a workshop to learn about all volunteer/service activities referencing the SDGs. Through her work, she has met local government representatives, informed them of her Advocate role, and they have agreed to plan activities and a course of action together. Finally, her school signed the Global Schools pledge.
Farrukh Avais, Pakistan
Farrukh is a Global Schools Advocate from Pakistan engaging young girls to make the world a better place. Her work focuses on Good Health and Well-Being (SDG#3), Quality Education (SDG#4), Climate Action (SDG#13), Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions (SDG#16), and Gender Equality (SDG#5). As an Advocate, she has initiated many classroom projects. During the first project, “Managing our Waste” students created useable items using daily trash materials and learned how to reduce, recycle, and reuse. The students also visited a plastic and recycling paper unit. In her “Health Comes First” project, Farrukh and her classroom conducted a series of health awareness sessions and reached almost 50 participants directly and 100 indirectly. In her “Every Drop Counts” activity, students were sensitized to responsible consumption and completed an integrated water sample analysis activity. They also visited a water pump. On SDG 16, students researched and debated, “What is Peace and Its Need in the Current Situation?”. This project will be expanded to help students explore conflicts around the globe that demand peaceful resolutions. Through the Advocacy program, Farrukh has established an SDG Advocacy club. Furthermore, her school has established an Eco-Green club made up of motivated students who want to learn about the environment, take actions to improve their immediate surroundings, and spread awareness among their communities. Finally, she has started a tree plantation campaign, “Planting for a Better Future.” All of her projects include awareness, action, evaluation, and competitions. She is actively taking action for ESD and integrating activities in daily classroom lessons.
Florence V, India
Florence V is a Global Schools Advocate from Tamilnadu, India. Since starting her mandate, she has introduced Education for Sustainable Development in her school, Alphonsa Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Nagercoil, Tamilnadu, India. Florence contributes to promoting Education for Sustainable Development in her school and in her immediate community. She works to reach the marginalized and downtrodden communities through her students. During her time as an Advocate, Florence organized four virtual meetings for teachers and staff, and the school decided to incorporate ESD into the curriculum. Florence then conducted an official inauguration day on the SDGs and ESD for school management, 200 students, and ten teachers, in which students brainstormed on the SDGs. During the month of October, the school celebrated Good Health and Well-being (SDG3) and conducted a "Drug Addiction Awareness Campaign" with students. Additionally, students participated in the Youth Innovation Challenge Competition sent by Global Schools and conducted by GEEP to develop their knowledge on SDG 13 and 14. Students collected unused plastic bottles in the school, and there are plans to make eco-bricks for micro-level construction projects. Each coming month will have a school-wide theme. In November, Florence plans to focus on plastic awareness. Finally, Florence’s school decided to launch an SDG club to transmit themes to the community as well as a Tamil translation committee.
Kanmani Govindasamy, Japan
As a Global Schools Advocate, Kanmani has been spreading sustainable development awareness across the school campus through a myriad of activities. First, the school has incorporated an SDG talk into morning assemblies. Students and teachers take turns giving short talks on SDGs during the assemblies. They have also put up an SDG wall in the school library and an SDG bulletin board. Students can post small articles and speeches on the bulletin board. Kanmani created a google form on “SDG Ideation” that was circulated to teachers, staff, and management. Everyone was asked to share their thoughts and ideas for implementing sustainable development at school and for creating awareness on sustainable development for the students. Every week, the school has circulated a minimum of two videos related to sustainable development. Kanmani shares videos with fellow teachers and corresponding dates so that all students see the same videos. School-wide discussions occur in homeroom about the videos the students have watched. Both students and parents have been asked to share photos of any SDG posters that they come across in the community. Additionally, all of the grades have been introduced to the SDG board game, which students can play during lunch break and free hours. In the classroom, an activity was carried out on the literacy rate for the “% of females 15 and above”, which incorporates SDG 4, 5, 10, and allows students to practice ICT skills. As far as whole-of-school activities, on World Food Day, students from grades 1 to 3 created videos on healthy snacks and promoted healthy foods with valuable nutrients to help the human body sustain well-being and energy. Additionally, the school collaborated with an Indian NGO and raised funds for Grocery Kits for 178 children who are battling cancer. The school also came together to conduct a STEM activity that focuses on sound in collaboration with alumni from Tokyo University.
Lissette Estefania Pino Valverde, Ecuador
Lissette Pino Valverde is a passionate EFL teacher and CAS coordinator at Colegio Alemán Humboldt Samborondón in Ecuador. During these past few months as a Global Schools Advocate, Lissette has integrated the SDGs into her lesson plans, raising greater awareness and encouraging reflection in her students through a constructivist approach that promotes collaborative learning. Additionally, as part of the English department, Lissette has worked as a facilitator preparing a series of workshops for her colleagues on sustainable development, promoting the implementation of ESD and SEL in their classrooms. As part of her endeavor, Lissette has worked with two colleagues, Ninoska Avendaño and David Saeteros, to create the first SDGs Student Council in her school. This initiative aims to raise students’ awareness of the importance of sustainability. The members of the SDGs Student Council will be leaders among their peers, motivating the entire school community to work collaboratively to make a real change in the world. Through experiential learning, the first members of the SDGs Student Council will prepare awareness campaigns in the classroom, followed by conducting sustainable projects in their school and surrounding communities. Moreover, this project will not remain within Colegio Aleman Humboldt Samborondón. The planning, implementation, and results phases will be compiled in numerous research papers. This data will guide several teachers around the world to apply this initiative in their schools. Lissette couldn’t be more grateful to be part of a community of educators seeking to create a greater impact on their students and the world. If you want to work collaboratively on projects that promote SDGs, don’t hesitate to contact her: lissette.pino@hotmail.com
Ozioma Helen Umeobieri, Nigeria
Ozioma Helen Umeobieri is a self-motivated educator and a passionate advocate of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially 2, 3, 4, 11, 12, and 13. As a Global Schools Advocate, she believes that the teachers are at the center of achieving the SDGs, which is why the education sector remains the only key to fast track the success of the SDGs in developing countries, including Nigeria. She adopted a school-wide approach to promote ESD in her school community. In her two months as an Advocate, she has been able to organize two workshops for teachers and students respectively, educating them on the SDGs and how they can contribute toward achieving sustainable development in their local communities. The workshops address SDGs, Nigeria’s performance on the SDG Report 2021, UNESCO’s ESD Objectives, and sample lessons to understand how to integrate SDGs into learning objectives. Furthermore, Helen engaged her students in designing the SDG placards using colors that appeal to their senses. As a Food Systems Hero, who is passionate about how improved access to food helps achieve Quality Education through increased participation and performance of children in underserved communities, she mobilized the entire student body and some teachers at her school to carry out a road walk awareness campaign to commemorate World Food Day 2021. This allowed them to show their commitment to achieving SDG 2 and 12 and inform their community on how they can drive change. With the help of her school leadership, she was able to group the students and teachers into 6 SDG groups relating to their school community to allow them to come up with innovative ideas and solutions to the selected SDGs (2, 3, 4, 11, 12 and 13). This project will continue in the coming months. Helen is interested in taking her actions to other schools in the coming year to inspire change.
Shedluck Devis Haule, Tanzania
Shedluck Devis Haule is a Global Schools Advocate in Tanzania who works tirelessly to ensure children are attaining quality education and taking up the responsibility of positively impacting society. He commits to teaching Education for Sustainable Development to pupils in order to contribute, influence, and inspire transformation in all spheres of life. This month, Shedluck conducted a study tour with his pupils (standard five and six) to learn about entrepreneurship, production, industries, and agriculture. They visited the Creative Genius Foundation, which deals with preparing, processing, packing, and selling cassava flour. This allowed him to address sustainable development within a local context. He and his students also had an opportunity to visit one of the water sources in their village in order to learn about the importance of water bodies and the responsibility to keep them clean and safe for the benefit of the whole society. Next, he celebrated the International Day of the Girl Child with the entire school through songs, jogging, and education session about girls’ rights. The event promoted equality, quality education, and love. Finally, Shedluck’s school is planting flowers and trees, and his students are learning about entrepreneurship in order to discourage poverty. He believes education is the best tool for changes in society, so children can be responsible leaders and solve social, environmental, and economic problems.
