Volunteer Report “A memorable day”

Name : Satsuki Goto
Speciality : Environmental Education

Since September 2021, I have been working as an environmental education volunteer at the city council in the capital city Lilongwe.

In environmental education, the most common activity is to visit schools and conduct workshops on nature and environmental protection. However, I have never visited schools before, as my main activities are analysing the current state of waste management in the city, improving the quality of clean-up events and publicity activities.

Recently, by the request of another department, I participated in a workshop on environmental issues for primary school students as the person in charge of introducing them to waste management.

At first, I was planning to conduct the workshop in Chichewa, a language familiar to children, but I thought that the experience of receiving lessons in English from a foreigner might leave a more lasting impression, so I did everything in English except for the greetings and I was accompanied by an interpreter. When I was in primary school, I loved the time when a foreign teacher gave lessons in English in a class called International Understanding, and it still left a strong impression on me. So that I decided to conduct the workshop in English.

In the first half of the session, I explained the increase of waste in Lilongwe and the 3Rs principle (Reuse, Reduce and Recycle) and the cooperation of citizens is essential to reduce waste, and in the second half, I explained paper charcoal made from paper waste as an example of recycling and all participants made a prototype.
The students were selected from each school and were very serious, and even without instructions from anyone, they listened intently and took notes on how to make paper charcoal.
When asked by the teacher what they had learnt during the review time, the students said, "I realised that recycling is necessary to reduce waste and protect the environment", "If we can recycle waste at home, I think there will be no more waste in the future", "I think we can stop illegal deforestation by using paper charcoal at home". I was so impressed.

I went into the day with some anxiety about not having an experience in education and not being able to teach children in an interesting way, but when the students came up to me after the class and said with a twinkle in their eyes, "Satsuki, thank you for giving us this experience", I felt that I could have given them a lesson that they would remember for a while.
I was very happy to be able to make an opportunity for the students to learn that things they normally see as waste can replace firewood and charcoal which are necessities of life.
It was one of the biggest memories in my various activities over the past year and ten months.

In addition, this first contact with Malawian primary school students led me to start considering that in order to improve public awareness of environment, there needs to be repeated opportunities for practical learning about environmental issues and waste problems in school education, in parallel with civic education.

In Malawi, I am often suddenly asked to do work in different fields, and this was one such case, but I feel every day that all these experiences have helped me to grow. I feel that I have learnt more through my work in Malawi than I have transferred knowledge and skills as a volunteer.

When we parted, a student smiled and said, "Thank you for coming! God bless you, take care!” Of course, sometimes I have a hard time in my activities, but their smiles and lovely words encouraged me and made it a memorable day for me to make up my mind to do my best in the remaining months.