BOTSHABELO COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
ENERGY EDUCATION (2017)
As part of CSW’s four branches, we believe that education is fundamental. That's why one of the major project objectives for 2017, was to enroll all of the school children through energy education programming that would compliment the work we were up to in the community.
Classroom by classroom, we visited grades 1 to 9 learning about energy and electricity. Our first stop what to explore, "What is energy?" This is a fundemental part of our work at Botshabelo, so we felt it was important to cover the basics.
Next we talked about the history of energy, specifically fire, which is the earliest form of energy known to man. From there we began to explore the meaning of clean renewable energies by looking at hydro electricity, wind energy, geothermal energy and of course, solar energy.
While each of these clean energies were important to discuss, we spent extra time talking about solar energy since we were in the process of installing the 3.2 kilowatt solar panel system. We wanted to ensure that the children understood what the panels are, how they work, what they're for and ultimately why Botshabelo has received the panels this year.
We even made time to discuss how each of the children and the community should treat the panels. This was very important given that theft and vandalism is extremely high within the community.
We wrapped up the session with strategies on how to save energy. This got the children really excited to return home after school and start "turning off the lights" or "shutting off the TV" when they aren't in the room.
If there's one major take away from this experience is that learning can be fun so long as you throw in a little song and dance. Throughout our entire stay at Botshabelo, the energy song was perhaps the number one song on the Botshabelo charts!
Check out the Education Program highlight video.