From Haute-Savoie to Casamance : Understanding the Climate Crisis
Sens Solidaires is the local relay of the Eco-School label for schools in the Annemasse area. Eco-School is an international sustainable development education program whose objective is to make students drivers of a common project with positive consequences for their place of life, and thus contribute to achieving the 17 sustainable development goals set by UNO in 2015.
As part of the “International Solidarity Initiative” system with our partner Fonjep, Annemasse students carried out research and presentations on rising water levels. They observed the effects of climate change on the Mer de Glace, while the students from Ziguinchor set up a vegetable garden and participated in the replanting of the mangrove with our partner AGADA, a group of Agronomists in Casamance Senegal. The eco-delegates from the two countries were also able to discuss their respective actions through written correspondence and videoconferences.
Actions in Senegal
Thanks to funding from Sens Solidaires, the students of CEM Kénia set up, with the help of their teacher Mr. Djiba, a vegetable garden project whose abundant production made it possible to open a shop for teachers of the school and staff! Garden products, particularly papayas, are processed by the children themselves and then sold in the shop.
This store is therefore a great way to introduce students to the world of entrepreneurship. The money generated by the store’s sales is partly reinvested there, but also redistributed among the students to cover their school expenses.
Building on the success of this project, the objective is now to extend the system to other colleges in the region!
Mangrove reforestation
Cem Kénia students also had the opportunity to participate on July 6, 2022 in the reforestation of the mangrove in the village of Niambalang. They were thus made aware of the role of the mangrove and introduced to reforestation techniques using propagules.
Actions in France
For their part, eco-delegates from the Michel Servet college in Annemasse worked on melting ice and rising water levels. They chose to produce presentations and an exhibition on the subject in order to in turn make their classmates aware of these themes. At the end of the year, the eco-delegates spent a day at the Chamonix Mer de Glace and observed the consequences of global warming on the glacier.
Exhibition of the work of eco-delegates in Michel Servet middleschool
This exhibition, visible from September 26 to October 21 at the Servet college, aims to present the work of the 60 eco-delegates from the Michel Servet college in Annemasse as well as their Senegalese counterparts from the CEM Kenia college in Ziguinchor.
Through the joint action of students, teaching staff and Sens Solidaires, no less than 3,400 students were made aware of sustainable development through the various projects carried out during the 2021-2022 school year. The students worked in particular on the theme of global warming and rising water levels, the consequences of which are particularly visible in the melting of the ice in Haute-Savoie and the rising water levels in Casamance.
The project is renewed for this 2022-2023 school year with the new eco-delegates of the college.
The exhibition will be held at the Cité de la Solidarité Internationale in Annemasse, from November 7 to December 3, 2022 then from Monday December 5 to 31 at the Annemasse Town Hall in the presence of elected officials for ecological transition and soft mobility.