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Voices for Change
For more information contact Rachel Laurence. Room 13 is Out There Recently, Positive News subscribers’ magazine, Living Lightly on the Earth, published an article on Room 13, a groundbreaking project in which pupils from Caol, in Scotland, were given creative and managerial control over their school’s art studio. It soon began to gain funding and support, allowing the children to employ an artist-in-residence. However, since these early days, Room 13 has become so much more than an arts studio: its do-it-yourself attitude is now spreading to other schools, both in Scotland and internationally, and similar initiatives have recently been set up in Nepal, South Africa and India. Room 13’s success is based on its completely child-led managerial team. Elected each year from the primary school’s students, it is responsible for everything from the employment of teachers and artists to making sure that materials and resources are fully stocked. In Room 13 adults are not even allowed to sign the cheques. Since its founding in 1994, Room 13 has been continuously expanding, first to nearby Lochyside RC Primary school and then throughout the UK. Its ethos has proved popular with students and teachers alike throughout all levels of education, a fact confirmed by the creation of Studio 13 in Lochaber High School. Much like Room 13, it is also run by the students and has a music, recording and film studio. Studio 13 broadcast their own music show on Nevis Radio, which is Lochaber’s local radio station. Although the majority of Room 13 projects have been based in the UK, its appeal is global and, through a succession of trips to Kathmandu in Nepal, a Room 13 project has been established in an orphanage. Since then, similar trips to South Africa and India have spawned new projects, each based on the same principles of the original Room 13 in Caol. Room 13’s progress and expansion is testimony to what can be achieved by a youth-run project. The concept has moved far beyond Caol’s Primary School, bringing new skills, confidence and artistic opportunities to an international audience. Contact: Room 13 HQ, What Goes Around, Keeps Going Around "See the school we're passing? They have a huge organic vegetable garden that the kids tend. Then they use everything they grow in the cafeteria!" The school we were passing was Lincoln Elementary School just outside of Olympia, WA. In October 2002, Vanessa Ruddy, a concerned parent, arranged a meeting with the staff Nutrition Supervisor, other parents, staff, teachers and community members. Her efforts resulted in a pilot program, Organic Choices Salad Bar. The daily menu at Lincoln and other area schools also highlights locally grown produce. At Lincoln, the shift to the salad bar, which features fruits and veggies, whole grain breads, vegetarian protein alternatives and eggs, grew naturally from an
already-in-place environmental education program named the Lincoln From garden to plate to compost to garden, the cycle is complete. Contact: Farm to School Program No Mountains to High AMHERTSBURG, Canada. Soon, however, Lindsey and the rest of the members decided to expand to other causes, and renamed it Youth For A Better World. The group focused on environmental issues, animal rights, abolishing sweatshops, helping abused woman and helping children who are in difficult situations. YFBW raised money from carwashes towards a women shelter and sponsored a child in Taiwan. The group has an ongoing Campaign against sweatshops called the “No Sweat” Campaign, which involves letter writing, giving presentations at schools, and organizing protests. “We are hard working, dedicated youth who care about the future of our planet and the people, environment, and animals on it. We believe that there is hope for a brighter tomorrow and that we, as young people full of ambition, are the answer. There are no mountains too high to climb.”, reports their website, “As human beings, we cannot afford to let the quality of life for all people slip through our fingers. We need to make a difference, for everyone.” Contact: Lindsey Logsdon Designing Tomorrow’s Schools China’s first Green Care school has come a step closer to existence after a one-day workshop at the Chinese University to design a ‘dream’, eco-friendly, primary school for the village of Qinmo in Guangdong. The winning design was a state of the art building – with a dazzling solar panelled roof and a connecting ecological strip of buildings, organic gardens and recreational activities that links the school with the village community. It was submitted by a team of Chinese University students led by John Lin. The project was conceived by the Green Field Foundation, a Hong Kong based non-profit organisation, which hopes to open Green Care schools across rural China to teach young people “to learn to be careful with resources, the land, each other and the space they share,” said the Foundation’s co-founder Matthew Cheng. He hopes the students will be “green seeds” in the community, helping parents, villagers and local officials to understand agricultural practices that respect and revitalise the earth. With the school as a development model, Cheng believes that Qinmo could be transformed into an ecological farming village, and inspire the message of sustainable living throughout the region. During the workshop, architects and university students came together to envision the eco-school and its on-site biodynamic farm by exploring designs that are sensitive to the local environment, culture, climate and natural resources. Some of the ideas generated included using bamboo roofs and locally sourced stone, and natural ventilation using the east-west prevailing wind to cool buildings in the tropical heat. Other principles of good design were to minimise pollution and conserve energy through recycling, the use of degradable materials, and the treatment of waste. “Rain can be collected on the school roof and used for washing, toilets, farming and planting. Organic waste, manure and waste water will be composted or turned into biogas which can be used for heating and cooling,” said Mr Cheng. For many of the students it was the first time they had been given the opportunity to implement their eco-building designs, although according to Chinese University’s Professor Edward Ng, “the interest and technical know-how is there”. Many Hong Kong-based groups and individuals have been collaborating on the Qinmo school including the Professional Green Building Council who will oversee the building’s completion, scheduled for March 2007. Dr Sarah Liao, Secretary for Environment, Transport and Works, who attended the workshop, praised the project, which pulled together young people, Hong Kong skills and philanthropy and mainland China in the cause of sustainable development. www.gff.com.hk (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.) |
