Anaadi Sustainability Awareness for the Young (ASAY)

#SDGAction42849

Description

Intro

Anaadi Sustainability Awareness for the Young (ASAY) is a volunteer led Sustainable Development Goals campaign and “a United Nations Partnership for the SDGs initiative”. It was started in January 2017. Very few students in the Indian context have exposure to the global goals. The aim of ASAY is to educate school and college students about the SDGs with specific focus on SDG12: Responsible Consumption, through an immersive and experiential content. It is delivered as workshops at various educational institutions and is a blend of lectures, discussions and hands-on group activities.

Objective of the practice

Moving to an eco-centric approach as against an ego centric approach is necessary for a sustainable planet. When this eco centric approach is developed at a very young age, it can lead to transformation. Sustainability is not just an idea but a way of life and hence right from developing the mental attitude for sustainability to translating into action becomes important. The program helps students think like global citizens and set a vision for themselves that will flow as beneficial actions in the future. 
 
The key objectives of the workshop are: 
- Create an awareness about UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Sustainability among young people especially students 
- Help students gain a perspective of global environmental issues and their role in solving them 
- Give them exposure to real-world sustainability problems and encourage them to design solutions 
- To jointly explore the individual consumption along various dimensions: Food, Energy etc 
- Work on real-world consumption problems through simulated learning and explore and evolve relevant solutions to identified problems. 
- Help students understand sustainability both in a global and local context and take on the role of active global citizens 
 
The program is unique in communicating the Global Goals through local examples and actionables, which students can easily understand and integrate in their lives. Students get the opportunity to work on on speciﬁc case studies in the areas of Education, Health, Food and Environment. The case studies about real life situations require them to put themselves in the shoes of a leader and play their part in solving global problems by co-creating solutions. It includes themes like self sufﬁciency, soil management, reinventing the education system, energy management.

Partners

Stakeholders:
The School Principal , School Management, Students, Teachers, Parents
Chief Education Officer of the district
Young environmentalists and volunteers passionate about the environment
Partnerships:
UN Partnership for the Sustainable Development Goals initiative (voluntary)
ASAY is one among the 4 projects from India to be selected by the Engagement Global’s ESD Expert Net, Germany
The Program Director of ASAY, Prajna Cauvery is a United Nations Global Schools Ambassador with the UN SDSN
ASAY is one among the few projects selected by the prestigious UN Global Schools Program from around the globe

Implementation of the Project/Activity

Methodology: The program is a blend of lectures, discussions and hands-on group activities with an immersive and experiential content. The program is delivered as workshops in several educational institutions for young people. Participants work on real world case studies, ideate on solutions and draw up a plan to implement the explored solutions. Students then take up the online free Moodle course on Sustainability “ASAY Sustainability Champions” which is loaded with children friendly learning materials and videos.

Overall activities
1. Setting the context and introduction to the Sustainable Developments Goals.
2. Group Activities: As a way of inculcating a. Team spirit b. Problem-solving approach to learning, the children are grouped into several teams and get the opportunity to work on case-studies that deal with ecological issues.
3. The teams are given time to present their solutions and explain their charts. The outcomes are evaluated based on Empathy, Creativity of the Solution and Depth of Exploration of problem space.
4. Self-Reflection: Using contemplative tools to reflect on their individual thoughts on sustainability, how their actions and consumption patterns impact ecology and what measures they can take to enhance their contribution to sustainability.
5. Action Plan Preparation: Participants chart out an action plan to take forward the learnings in their spheres of influence.

Solution Guidelines :
Students are provided with a guidelines sheet highlighting various parameters to evaluate their solutions. The guidelines sheet have different dimensions of the solution including aspects of : Sustainability, Ethicality, Legality, Goal-centrism, Inclusivity, FundGeneration, Economic Viability, Stakeholder participation and motivation and uniqueness of the solution.
Evaluation Metrics :
The outcomes are evaluated based on Empathy, Creativity of the Solution and Depth of Exploration of problem space. The teams are given time to present their solutions and explain their charts. Reward points are given to those teams who are able to incorporate multiple SDGs into their solution space. The activity gives the children an opportunity to look at social issues and ideate on practical solutions including the SDGs.

Results/Outputs/Impacts

This initiative has reached 8 States in India, through over 20 volunteers who have been trained as SDG Multipliers who are actively involved in taking this initiative forward across the country. We have impacted over 8,500 school students. The impact schools are committed to integrating sustainability in their curriculum and starting student led initiatives in their schools.
A pre-assessment and post-assessment is conducted to measure the student learning through the workshop. Lasting impact is ensured through involvement of multiple stakeholders in the academic setting.
Students can enroll in our free online Moodle course "ASAY Champions", where they can access lecture videos, animations and interactives related to the SDGs. Follow up workshops are conducted for continued engagement with the schools. The capacity building of volunteers who handle the program are done internally at Anaadi Foundation. The outcomes from the program in the form of charts, diagrams, and participant reports are documented.

Enabling factors and constraints

Enabling Factors:
- Highly enthusiastic young volunteers who are passionate about the environment and taking forward sustainability education to school students in a way they can easily connect with.
- Schools who make time from their packed academic calendars and prioritize sustainability and global citizenship education , with a vision to create responsible future citizens
- Teachers who take the extra effort to undergo training and integrate sustainability education in their classrooms
- Support from the Chief Education Officer of the District
Constraints :
Some schools find it very hard to make time for sustainability education amidst their packed schedule

Sustainability and replicability

The ASAY program, is entirely youth and volunteer led.
Since December 2018, the program is supported by Engagement Global, Germany.
The vision for ASAY has been global. Global goals communicated to students through local examples and actionables, make it replicable and scalable in any part of the world and would be very relevant and relatable for students from all backgrounds and contexts.
It changes the way students look at Sustainability - as not just an idea but a way of life. As not just something they read about, but something they can actionate upon and contribute towards. When our young volunteers communicate about such ideas to them, they are inspired to take up initiatives in their own spheres of influence. We are breaking silos by creating a robust framework for Sustainability Education in India by involving multiple stakeholders at all levels, from the State Education department to the student in the classroom, from the School management to a passionate environmentalist.
The program can be replicated across the world with the help of youth passionate about the environment and communicating it to school students. It is replicable.

Conclusions

Through this first of its kind initiative, we empower passionate young volunteers who are committed to the cause of Sustainable Development to educate school students about the SDGs and inspire them to consume responsibly and live sustainably. The program is unique in its quality of educating about the Global Goals through local examples and actionables, which students can easily understand and integrate in their lives. Through group activities, students also take on the role of leaders and play their part in solving global problems by co-creating solutions. 
 
This initiative has reached 8 States in India, through over 40 volunteers have been trained as SDG Multipliers who are actively involved in taking this initiative forward across the country. We have impacted over 36,000 school students. The impact schools are committed to integrating sustainability in their curriculum and starting student led initiatives in their schools. 
A pre-assessment and post-assessment is conducted to measure the student learning through the workshop. Lasting impact is ensured through involvement of multiple stakeholders in the academic setting. 
Students can enroll in our free online Moodle course "ASAY Champions", where they can access lecture videos, animations and interactives related to the SDGs. Follow up workshops are conducted for continued engagement with the schools. The capacity building of volunteers who handle the program are done internally at Anaadi Foundation. The outcomes from the program in the form of charts, diagrams, and participant reports are documented.

Other sources of information

Program website: http://www.anaadifoundation.org/asay/
Media coverage: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1NKFbfSLHhZkSKsH7knThkRH-wNYTqOXZ
YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg6EoVEUpPY

SDGS & Targets