The foundations in community development course (FCD) that is currently running here on the campus gave me the chance to do a week of teaching with their trainees this month. I was asked to focus on environmental stewardship, which is a passion of mine, especially after working in marine and terrestrial conservation in the Seychelles for several years.
The trainees are form a variety of backgrounds (Korea, Malawi, Switzerland, Cameroon, Rwanda, Egypt, USA and England), which was amazing. Getting to spend time with such a variety of culture and worldview was a real privilege. We spent the week having discussions around a number of topics that I felt would best help them in this subject. I am not so good at just speaking/lecturing people, I like to get them to think, so to have the freedom to facilitate and have discussion was amazing. The trainees all said at the end of the week that they enjoyed sharing ideas and trying to work things out together.
I felt that they learned a lot, and it was really good that they saw that it is no good addressing just the problem and setting up legislation. You actually have to get involved with the community and educate and mentor the people so that they can catch the vision for what they have. It is more than just about looking after the animals, it involves resource management, such as fresh water etc, pollution management and so on, it is a big subject.
But why is this a passion of mine? Why do I think we should be looking after the planet? Because God has given it to us as a gift and asked us to look after it for him. God created it all. If you were given something by a good friend, and told you can use it, but that they would like it back eventually, are you going to look after it so that they can have it back in good condition? It would be selfish if you did not care for what your friend gave you.
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