K. Nicole Kindred – Sustainability Consultant

On Tuesday I had the opportunity to attend World Pulse LIVE at the Paley Center for Media in New York City.

World Pulse is an organization that strives to bring a voice to women around the globe using new technology and media. One example of this was in the My Camera and Me against a Regime video – a video that was uploaded from a mobile phone by a women who was arrested during a Sudanese protest. World Pulse allows for an online area where women can come together to find and share their success stories.

For World Pulse LIVE, Martha Llano from Colombia, Beatrice Achieng from Uganda, and Sarvina Kang from Cambodia were selected to come to the US to discuss how they are using new media and technology to facilitate them as grassroots leaders.

The women told powerful stories of how they found their voices. In Martha’s talk she spoke about the dangers of living in the Columbia cloud forest and how she had learned to overcome the dangers. When people told her she should carry a gun, she refused, saying “I will not take a gun to speak for me, because I have my own voice and words”. She emphasized the importance of thinking globally and acting locally.

Sarvina told her story of being the only literate individual in a family of 35. She was the only girl in her family and her village to go to college and now has her Master’s in NGO leadership. She emphasized the importance of education for women in creating change and preventing social problems like sex trafficking.

Beatrice told her story of growing up in Uganda and her emphasis on HIV prevention and education. She emphasized how if you give hope to one girl, a grassroots leader will emerge. She told the story of how when her last brother died of AIDS, her mother lost all hope because only men can own land in Uganda; however, after she told her story on the World Pulse platform, the World Pulse members emphasized that they were behind her and she stood up to her village for the land and was able to keep it.

When asked what the women thought would be most beneficial to their communities in spreading their voice, all three women emphasized that their was a lack of technology in their communities, and solar panels would be an easy remedy.

World Pulse LIVE is also available launching an online tour for individuals who are not able to attend the event in person.

Givology.org was launched nine months ago by a group of Wharton students as a way of using social networks to connect education with the developing world. The group has so far attracted more than 200 lenders and has partnerships in China, India, Uganda, Ecuador and Kenya with the goal of creating a global community of individuals connected through their belief in the power of education to change people’s lives.

What distinguishes Givology from other organizations is a philosophy of building lasting sponsor-student relationships and cross-cultural communication. Using messaging and blogging system, donors can send messages to a student, as well as receive updates on their progress. Each quarter or semester, student letters, progress updates, and academic documentation are all posted on Givology to allow donors to track their impact in the lives of an individual or a community.

Read an interview with the creators of givology.org at Knowledge@Wharton.

During the next 6 years, 10 million new classrooms need to be built and 10-15 million more need to be upgraded just to provide basic access to education for children around the world. In response to the escalated need for learning spaces worldwide, 2009 brings the Open Architecture Challenge: Classroom – the world’s first large-scale design initiative to improve the design of educational facilities around the world. It is a unique opportunity for faculty and students to partner with design professionals to create a safer, healthier and more sustainable learning environment and win funding to build or upgrade a classroom in their school.

The designers are invited to work with students and teachers to design the classroom of the future for a specific school. The design should address the unique challenges the school faces in trying to provide smart, safe and sustainable learning spaces. Interaction with students and teachers is encouraged and architects and designers are expected to work one-on-one with students to translate their needs into better classroom design.

Last year, on January 24, 2008, the Columbia Institute hosted a symposium in Vancouver entitled – Through the Green Glass: Climate Change Symposium for Education Leaders.

You can download the webcast and view videos of the keynote speeches from the Symposium from the working tv website.

Although a little late…

The One Laptop Per Child Grassroots Web Conference (link) was started to increase communication between grassroots projects, as well as increase the general visibility of OLPC projects around the world. This ranges from computer development to pilot programs and public awareness campaigns.

While this conference took place on Saturday, you can catch highlights of the presenters, discussions and questions at Jusin.tv.

The One Laptop per Child project is an interesting look at how technology can be implemented into development and education, and the web conference allows for discussion on how these programs have been implemented around the world.

This morning Metro Vancouver hosted their monthly sustainability breakfast discussion. This month’s theme was Sustainability Education including talks from Chris Kelly – Superintendent of Schools for the Vancouver School Board, Kevin Nelson – Executive Director of Check Your Head, and a group of grade 9 students from the Green Bricks program at King George Secondary in Vancouver.

Chris Kelly primarily discussed what is sustainability education and why it’s important. He pointed out that the fundamental purpose of education is sustainability. In his talk he stressed the importance of direct and authentic engagement of the learner/student to determine what is important and to create a sustainability process.

In order to discuss sustainability options in education, Chris Kelly as well as other leaders within education in Vancouver, took part in a Sustainability Summit on April 28th of this year. This summit hosted a “World Cafe” session in which short and long-term actions in order to respond to sustainability issues – both social and environmental – were discussed. What came out of this session included:
1. An embedded emphasis on social responsibility;
2. Multiple initiatives;
3. Learner/student generates and leads;
4. Self-determination.

Kevin Nelson discussed Check Your Head’s work with schools and students to determine how schools can interact with the local communities to find sustainable initiatives and learn of ways in which this is placed in the broader global context. He emphasized that they were not trying to ‘recreate the wheel’ but instead were trying to ‘sew a tapestry’ of organizations in the community – that is bring together all the different factors of the community that are working together for positive change so that they can all work together.

An example of this was the installation of solar panels on the King George Secondary school. The community came together to install the solar panels and students were educated about the process and it’s benefits in their classes. Kevin stressed that sustainability education is an opportunity for the next generation to explore new possibilities, innovations and creations that can change the current path in which we are headed.

The King George grade 9 students discussed how they worked together to reduce energy, waste and water consumption within their schools. This has expanded beyond the typical science class discussions and has been adopted throughout their curriculum. For instance, in their English class they created advertisements that encouraged a reduction in consumption and greater awareness.

Education has a definite place in expanding sustainability. If people are unaware of the problems and the potential solutions, our situation can not be changed.