Our beautiful, but fragile environment

NEWSLETTER OF THE NATURE ACTION COLLABORATIVE FOR CHILDREN

NACC NEWSLETTER JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2011 EXCHANGE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2010 EXCHANGE

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2011

Our beautiful, but fragile environment by Caroline Hudicourt

Forty schools with a total of 8,000 students have become an oasis in Gros Morne, northwest of Haiti’s Artibonite Valley, as they contribute to the reforestation of the area. They have bought land — at least a half acre per school — that they cover with trees to later exploit for the benefit of the school. The children participate to the reforestation of the community, build a source of revenue for their school, and shape their identities as responsible citizens. Sometimes children walk as much as 5 to 6 hours back and forth to get trees to reforest their school’s property.

In deciding to go back to his hometown after getting a college education, 46-year-old Jean made an unusual choice. Fully 85% of the Haitians who receive any kind of professional training in Haiti work abroad, and of those who stay, many live in Port-auPrince where almost all the universities are. Those who decide to go back to their hometowns are the exception. Jean graduated from Ecole Normale Supérieure (teachers’ school for high school educators) in science education and is presently a science teacher in his area.

The project, that we call “friends of trees,” started in 2000 with a group of children ranging in age from 4 to 15 years. With a mentor, they learn to prepare nurseries, compost, and plant and water the trees. The children’s excitement for reforesting led Gaston Jean, who initiated the reforestation endeavor, to involve a network of schools in the activity; the network now includes 40 schools.

Grand-Plaine is located northwest of the Artibonite department, where the large Artibonite Valley produces most of the rice grown in Haiti. Yet the valley is under-exploited because the peasants are left to work on their own and do not have the means to invest in their crops. Vulnerable as they are, they are more often exploited than helped. In Gonaive, the capital city of the Artibonite department, thousands died in floods in 2004 and 2008. It is also along the Artibonite Valley that the first cases of cholera were diagnosed. Being the largest plain with the largest river of the country, both its potential and its needs are great.

Since 1992, Gaston has been part of a community organization committed to make the Green School Reforestation Project work. He says, “This project helps the children develop new skills, instills love for their environment and their country, and helps them participate actively in the improvement of their living condition.”

Jean feels a sense of accomplishment and pride when he sees how motivated everyone is, how people in the

area welcome the project and support it, and the number of trees they have been able to plant in such a little time. He says, “With this project we were able to sensitize a lot of people around the issue of reforestation. We successfully grew many trees and the schools have green spaces, which we call ‘small school forests.’” For the past two years the budget of the project has been $39,000 U.S. dollars, with money coming from Haitians living abroad, and Prime Ministers Jacques Edouard Alexi and Michele Duvivier Pierre-Louis have been the main supporters. Mrs. PierreLouis was the director of FOKAL (Fondasyon Konesans ak Libète), the Haitian version of Open Society International. The Catholic Church of Gros Morn has also provided some support through its nursery. Jean muses, “Our wishes for the future are to have more schools in our network, have nurseries that are closer to the schools, plant more trees in the mountains, maintain the streams, and provide training and materials to the schools to improve the education the children receive.” He also wants to teach sustainable methods to those who sell wood and those who make charcoal. “Money is truly our single most limiting factor,” says Jean. continued

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Recently I heard that five of the 40 participating schools were partly damaged by Hurricane Tomas, the last hurricane to hit Haiti. This project’s enormous spirit in such a beautiful but fragile environment, eloquently expressed through the children’s 10-hour walk to get trees, shows our true leadership, commitment. Effort and sacrifice can galvanize people’s energy and make miracles happen. In Haitian Creole we would say that such self-giving endeavors can make “stones bleed,” meaning that it can make life spring out of a nonliving thing. Caroline Hudicourt is a NACC Leadership Team member.

Wonder Vitals Wonder, the newsletter of the NACC, welcomes submissions from all NACC members. Please join us at: www.worldforumfoundation.org/ nature. The NACC Leadership Team is a core group of early childhood educators, designers, and landscape architects who came together in 2006 with a dream to change the world for young children. They represent six continents across the globe, and serve as key contact points for others around the world who have a desire to improve the lives of young children. The Leadership Team meets periodically to discuss strategies for increasing NACC’s outreach and membership, and to find new ways for all of us to work together to further our common mission.

Old prickly

by Jim Wike

It began with a dot and a circle on a piece of paper. It was intended to be a large piece of evergreen plant material — part of a greater whole of a landscape for a church and its associated preschool. Time elapsed and the tree grew straight and tall. Branches descended on the lower section of the tree. Like a giant hoop skirt, these branches enclosed a marvelous space. It provided an umbrella in soft rains, a natural hut in the snow, and shady welcome in summer. Children from the preschool on neighborhood walks soon discov-

ered the special qualities of this tree. It became a place to gather and orient to what the walk adventure would include. While there, the children would interact with the tree. The space formed and enclosed by the branches was a favorite. Some would climb a bit, others would simply observe the view up towards the top or out towards the sidewalk and street. There was the comfort in the enclosure and the feeling of protection. The tree survived spring thunderstorms and winter snows. It remained a favorite and was a stopping point not to be missed on neighborhood walks. All the while it remained an important aspect of the church, school, and neighborhood landscape. Over the years the tree took on the name Old Prickly. It became a friend. One day recently, the inevitable happened. Old Prickly succumbed to old age. A storm took its toll and laid the tree on its side. The educators, ever so aware of the value the tree had for the children, observed their thoughts and feelings. At first, the children who had befriended the tree expressed sadness. It was not long, though, before the children started making their way along the trunk from the base toward what was once the top. What had only been imagined from the ground was now observable from a very close viewpoint. Some collected cones. Others described the effort it took to ‘climb’ the trunk, and the sensations of brushing against the branches and the stickiness of the sap. Others were fascinated by the roots and the size of the hole that was created by the upended tree. One child made a song. Later that same day, a crew arrived on site to dispose of the tree. A collective groan was heard as the children realized the crew was removing the tree. They were fascinated, though, as the limbs were chipped. The crew made slices of the smaller limbs and upper trunk sections — known to the children as



‘tree cookies’ — for them to take home. Several larger sections were cut and rolled by the children and teachers to their outdoor classroom. A section was also set in front of the drinking fountain so the smaller children could reach. One child said she would now have a way of always remembering the tree. As they departed, one child said that they would all miss the tree and were sad it was gone. That one tree had a large impact. Those of us who design outdoor spaces for children can learn much through these children’s experiences. While we all have methods we use or principles we follow, some of the most magical experiences for children may occur incidentally to intentionally designed aspects. It’s good to include some space that is not

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specifically assigned a particular function. This may be easy to achieve at the edges, among buffering spaces between use areas and particularly in areas where pathways may occur. Perhaps there is already a tree or grouping that can serve this purpose, or maybe one or several trees can be planted. Allow space for the overall classroom to ‘mature.’ Combined with intentionally designed areas, these less tidy aspects can make for powerful and impactful spaces for children. After all, who really could have predicted the rich stories that resulted from a simple beginning consisting of a dot and a circle on a piece of paper? Jim Wike is a NACC Leadership Team member. PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR



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NACC NEWSLETTER EXCHANGE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2010 EXCHANGE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2011

Play Day Copenhagen The sound of a hammer pounding from the soapbox car garage was different from the everyday traffic noises when The Danish Playground Association turned the square Nytorv in the centre of Copenhagen — Denmark’s capital — into an adventure playground on October 15, 2010. The mix of the new sound and the smell from the bonfire and freshly baked pancakes gave the citizens several sense impressions and good experiences.

Hundreds of children and parents passing by were caught up in the good atmosphere and decided to stay for hours on this new, temporary playground. The children were invited to play 100%. There were water boxes and sandpits, the soapbox car garage, play equipment, and painting workshops. Turnip lamps were carved into scary faces and lighted up the square at night, when it turned into a cold October evening. Hundreds and hundreds of pancakes were baked over the bonfire. Lots of children and grownups were challenged by power games from the Viking Age, party plays from the old agriculture culture, and games from all over Europe

by Helle Nebelong

PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR

that were introduced by Gerlev Play Park. A storyteller fascinated the young audience with his horrifying fairytales and an illustrator and educator taught children how to draw Japanese manga. In the evening, the square was lighted by the bonfires and turnip lamps. Play Day lasted until 11 p.m., attracting many people during the day — families with children, children on their own, and day care centers. The children asked if the square could be like this — an adventure playground — every day! The Danish Playground Association’s interest is to inspire children and their families to live a more active and playful outdoor life, where they are allowed to play free and use their own imagination and creativity, and just have a good time playing outdoors. The Danish Playground Association is an interdisciplinary NGO with early childhood educators, landscape architects, play workers, and others who advocate for more and better places for children to be challenged through free play and play with nature’s elements. Helle Nebelong is president of the Danish Playground Association and member of NACC’s leadership team.

The mission of the Nature Action Collaborative for Childr en is to re-connect children with the natura l world by making developmentally appropri ate nature education a sustaining and enriching part of the daily lives of the world’s children.

AFRICA

EUROPE

ASIA

SOUTH AMERICA

NORTH AMERICA

SUPPORT TEAM: Bonnie and Roger Neugebauer, Redmond, Washington, United States Nancy and John Rosenow, Lincoln, Nebraska, United States Tara Hild, Lincoln, Nebraska, United States

Irma Allen, Mbabane, Swaziland Hadijah Nandyose, Kampala, Uganda Sebastian Chuwa, Moshi, Tanzania Bishnu Hari Bhatta, Kathmandu, Nepal Swati Popat, Mumbai, India Raed Abu Hayyaneh, Amman, Jordan Linda Esterling, Lincoln, Nebraska, United States Berta MacGregor, México City, México Jeanne McCarty, Fort Worth, Texas, United States James Wike, Memphis, Tennessee, United States

OCEANIA

Toni Christie, Wellington, New Zealand Gillian McAuliffe, Floreat, Australia Fiona Robbe, Arcadia, Australia

Helle Nebelong, Gentofke, Denmark Claire Warden, Perth, Scotland Marc Veekamp, Apeldoorn, Netherlands Martha Cecilia Fajardo, Bogota, Colombia Caroline Hudicourt, Petion-Ville, Haiti Wil Maheia, Punta Gorda Town, Belize

PRODUCTION: Scott Bilstad, Seattle, Washington Carole White, Lopez Island, Washington