Happy Earth Day

Wednesday, April 22 was Earth Day – the 50th anniversary in fact. Earth Day was created to raise awareness and bring people together to help protect the planet. This year was a very unique Earth Day as people all across the world are celebrating online and staying home to stop the spread of the Coronavirus. In fact, there has been a lot of news on the environmental impacts of staying home – some true and some not – from dolphins in the canals of Venice (not true) to lions sunbathing on formally busy roads in South Africa (true).

Satellites show less pollution, CO2 emissions down up to 25%, and areas of India are seeing the Himalayas for the first time in decades. While pollution is down and wildlife is showing up in all sorts of interesting places, “It’s the worst possible way to experience environment improvement and it has also shown us the size of the task,” said Michael Gerrard, an environmental law expert at Columbia University. In fact, even as almost everything has stopped, scientists say the expected cut in emissions is still less than what is needed to avoid climate disasters in the future.

 Looking at the environment in Zambia, sanitation and deforestation are major problems. With the majority of the population dependent on subsistence agriculture for their livelihood, sustainable usage of the environment is an important issue. In particular, the areas that we work are drought-prone and the conservation and efficient use of water becomes critical.

At Impact Network we think of the long-term effect on the environment for all of our projects. In a country where electricity is cut off for 12 hours a day to reduce the load on the overall system, we were one of the first organizations installing solar panels on school structures. While constructing buildings, we take care to use resources readily available, to dispose of waste ethically, and to reuse materials wherever possible.

In early 2020, we began a 3-year project with the Addax and Oryx Foundation that encompasses several environmental components. We will install rain barrel collection systems at the schools, enabling improved hand-washing stations, access to clean water, and improved sanitary conditions.  We will also incorporate educational upcycling into our curriculum, encourage students to think creatively on what constitutes trash, and train teachers on how to engage students on this initiative. Additionally, as part of this project, each student will plant a tree during a community Environmental Awareness day to help educate the community and combat deforestation. This is just one part of a bigger project that will provide a suite of wrap-around services to our current eSchool 360 model supporting students from Early Childhood to Secondary School. We are excited to partner with the Addax and Oryx Foundation on this project to improve the environment and more!

Happy Earth Day!

-Katie