Adult Eco-Clubs

Our Adult Eco-Clubs focus on assisting community members with skills training, livelihood diversification projects and business skills.  They also provide an important link between parents, elders, teachers and children on our programme. We realised that when it came to environmental learning and traditional skills there was no link between the adults and the children in the villages where we work: hence the introduction of our Adult Eco-Club programme in 2014.

Through this programme, adults, mostly women, join the children’s weekly Eco-Clubs to learn more about conservation and the environment while at the same time teaching the Eco-Club members traditional skills and traditional uses of trees, plants, etc.

Some of the livelihood diversification projects which the Adult Eco-Clubs are engaged in include:

• Bee-keeping
• Leather works
• Beading
• Weaving
• Screen printing
• Milling
• Tapestry
• Sewing
• Elephant dung paper

To participate in the livelihood diversification projects, each woman, or group of women, completes an application form, together with a proposal for their project. The proposals have to include details on what they require, what they plan to produce, and who they are planning to sell the end product to.  Discussions are then held related to the marketing of the products and the sustainability of the potential business. Another dimension to the programme includes providing financial guidance, as well as business and marketing skills training.

Currently, we have eleven Adult Eco-Clubs running across the regions in which we work, with a total of 185 members. This programme has provided a wonderful link between adults and the children, with both groups learning a great deal from one another.