Final Training Project

Here are some excerpts from an evaluation I wrote on our final project for training, a mangrove cleanup and poster contest done at a local elementary school. Maybe this can help give you an idea of some of the things I'll be working on here, and some of the issues that we face.

Proposal
Project Description:
This project will include school children and community members. There will be a short educational session in classrooms at Tapon Norte Elementary School that explains the importance of mangroves in their community and how they are connected to nutrition. In addition there will be a poster making contest that also focuses on how the two are connected. Toward the end of the school day, there will be an organized Mangrove clean up with the help of the other two clusters and local community members. In the evening, there will be a showing of a short educational video about mangroves, prizes for the best posters (as judged by teachers), and a showing of the movie “Finding Nemo”.

Project Goal(s) and Objective(s):
To reinforce the importance of mangroves in the community and the idea of actively caring for the environment. There is already an awareness of the mangroves among both children and adults, but further education and reinforcement will be useful. Another objective is to clean up the mangrove area and further educate about environmental stewardship.

Project Justification: (Why is this a need for your community?)
The majority of residents in Tapon Norte are fisher folk, or rely directly on fishing-related activities as a source of income and food. Mangroves are an important part of the coastal ecosystem, which most residents here realize. However, further education, especially with the future leaders of the community, is always needed. Also, there is currently an unacceptable level of garbage in the mangroves. While mangroves are good at filtering out toxins, having loose rubbish strewn throughout the area poses a number of environmental risks. Having the school children help clean up the area can begin to reinforce that caring for the environment is important, and that they can directly and easily make positive changes.

Evaluation
Timeliness:
Continuing to take care of the environment and educate the community is important at any stage of the CRM process. Tapon Norte has already been successful in planting many mangroves and the crucial stakeholders recognize their value. However, as trash builds up, mangroves can have their effectiveness dampened – as well as the other problems litter brings to the environment - and it’s important to continue to educate so that the mangroves are effective in the future.

Impact in the Community:
It’s hard to judge the lasting impact of the event in the community, but we can be pleased that the children were very excited throughout the process, and that they will tell their family and friends about the fun they had and what they learned. Conversations were overheard between the president of the Fisherman’s Peoples Organization and the schoolteachers, where the president was expressing shame and dismay that it took outsiders to spur a cleanup, so we definitely opened up some eyes and showed that the environment was important. The community was also paying close attention to the movies shown – including documentaries about Apo Island’s marine sanctuary and mangroves in Bohol, and Finding Nemo. Particularly with the first two, learning more about success stories on nearby islands could make local residents interested in seeing where they can take their environment.

Sustainability of the Initiative:
The president of the PO was also talking about how he wanted to begin a monthly cleanup of the mangroves and get people to take pride in cleaning and maintaining the mangroves. If this is the case, and the local will is there, this one small event could indeed be the start of a sustainable initiative. Education is also good for sustainability, so the more that students know about their mangroves, the more likely it is that they will take care of them in the future.

Challenges Faced:
· The amount of trash present in the mangroves was underestimated, so our hope of having a stunning visual impact was not realized as we couldn’t really clean everything. We learned that it would take some heavy-duty supplies and a very dedicated, strong workforce to really clean it.
· Some of the key points that we were trying to impart through this activity – such as not littering – clearly did not get through to some participants, as we had to pick up some of the plastic gloves used for trash pick-up off the ground, and there was a lot of litter left on the basketball court after the movie. This was disheartening.
· When the president of the PO was giving his speech, imploring the community to take pride in the mangroves and help keep them clean, he was very hard to hear and multiple people left, including many of the adults present at the time. This was disappointing because his message is what would help make the project more sustainable.