Pupils will never forget their virtual elephant safaris

I haven't written much about the Education for Sustainability projects I work on at school in my capacity as Environmental Sustainability Co-ordinator, but this one stood out as somewhat unique. 

It was one of the more eye-catching emails to arrive in my inbox. 

“Would your pupils like to meet our elephants on an educational online call?”

I was keen to read on. 

The Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation offered my school live elephant safaris over Google Meet Photo Credit: GTAEF

The offer was from the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation (GTAEF), a conservation group that runs an elephant sanctuary located approximately 900 kilometres north of Bangkok at the remote point where the borders between Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet. A very different place from the city based international school where I teach. 

We were in a second round of online learning due to the pandemic and pupils had been learning from home for nearly a month. The answer was an obvious - yes! 

It was great to work closely with Laddawan Yonthantham and John Roberts of the GTAEF. Armed with a laptop, smartphone and selfie stick, they took the whole of the primary school (that's around 970 pupils) on a series of virtual field trips to meet the elephants they care for. 

Children were delighted with the elephant's fun loving-antics Photo Credit: GTAEF

The project's success prompted me to pitch the story to the TES and they kindly asked for a full write up. The full article can be read here. It was also published in the TES magazine itself. Click this link for the tearsheet.

It was good to have the chance to point out to the wider TES audience of educators that: despite the pandemic and resultant move to online learning, we can find new and innovative ways to engage pupils in real-world experiences that boost learning –  and highlight the real people working to solve our conservation and sustainability problems. 

Such learning brings not only reality to pupils, but also hope. Hope that we really can fix the planet on which we all depend.

The GTAEF continues to offer virtual field trips to schools worldwide, and can offer virtual elephant safaris to suit a variety of timezones. Don't hesitate to get in touch if you would like your school to be involved. 

Unsung trash heroes save Bangkok from choking on its own waste

Uncle Ban has spent the last decade collecting unwanted waste from people's homes, earning enough to pay for his children's education Photo: Ewen Mcleish

For a long time, I'd been considering a feature article investigating Bangkok's informal waste collectors. These independent workers scour the streets looking to buy or scavenge recyclable materials discarded by the city's waste generating inhabitants. 

My Thai's ok for day-to-day life, but the language barrier blocked my way. Until I met Pavini Sethi of Beesgreen, who also saw these workers as playing a valuable part in our haphazard recycling system. 

Fluent in Thai, she was tireless in searching out a 'seleng' operator who would be willing to be interviewed, and found Uncle Ban working the sois near my work and her home. Thank-you Pavini!

Uncle Ban was a little surprised by my questions, but answered patiently all the same. It was really interesting to hear about his life and his pretty positive view of his work. 

My prejudices were overturned as I'd expected to hear a story of poverty and lack of opportunity, but instead Uncle Ban displayed a kind of determined, gentle contentment about his occupation and life in general. 

Selaeng operators sell recyclables to medium sized businesses who sell to Thailand's larger recycling companies. Photo: Ewen Mcleish

To add some academic background to the article I drew upon the case study 'Closing the Loop: Sai Mai District' produced by the Stockholm Environment Institute and UNESCAP.  It was great that Diane Archer, an author of the study, was able to provide extra details about the situation of informal waste collectors in Bangkok. 

It was also good to come across other businesses and projects in the sector, such as 'Recycle Day' and Less Plastic Thailand (provides a great beginners guide) in the course of my research. 

A 'selaeng' fully loaded and ready to go; all sorts of consumer waste can be resold and used again.     Photo: Ewen Mcleish

One thing that struck me as I put together the piece was the need to raise the status of these informal recyclers so they can gain some recognition for their important environmental work. 

If properly supported, they could be key to ramping up Bangkok's recycling system and clearing up the mess made by throwaway capitalism. 

I hope this article goes some way to persuade more people to take note and support a system for recycling which is already up and running in Bangkok, and on which many livelihoods depend.

Please click through to Coconuts to read the full article.