Since 2003, the Namib Desert Environmental Educational Trust, or NaDEET, has been educating the people of Namibia about living an environmentally sustainable way.
NaDEET’s mission includes classes, distributing literature, and providing internships to Namibian students interested in conservation efforts. Each outreach program is targeted at a different age group. The classes are aimed at teaching school children about water usage, solar power, and the 3 R’s, Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, and the lessons are meant to spark an interest in conservation. As the kids grow older, the internships are available for students who want to delve deeper into conservation work.
If older students and adults missed out on environmental education, they can also learn about sustainable living through NaDEET’s Community Education Programme and their It’s Time to… book series. The Community Education Programme teaches adults how to put together solar cookers and fuel-efficient stoves, cook with their new stoves, and use less water in their day-to-day lives, and their books It’s Time to Identify, It’s Time to Change, and It’s Time to Solar Cook are resources that they can refer to in their everyday lives.
NaDEET believes that environmental education can help Namibia with their social, political and economic issues as well as their environmental issues. The lessons from NaDEET’s classes and booklets will be taught from family to family, from mother to daughter, and from father to son. Environmental education empowers communities to live sustainable lives and “take care of the earth’s resources.”
To learn more about NaDEET, check out their website at http://www.nadeet.org, and support NaDEET’s work at http://www.nadeet.org/donations.html.
