While the ravaging conflicts of the 1970’s through early 2000’s have ended in northern Uganda, these traumas remain a large presence in much of the population. In the mid-1980’s a primary school called UNIFAT was founded in Gulu, Uganda as a safe, supporting refuge for children orphaned due to conflict, AIDS, and poverty. I spent a week working with these teachers and students, engaging them in analyses of key documents supporting human rights and helping them bring these, together with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, into their classroom activities and curriculum. Their unbounded energy and enthusiasm were inspiring and contagious as they then designed age-appropriate outreach activities that are already being introduced.
What we purchase and use are often based on wants more than needs, and habits more that enlightened choices. The same apply to how we discard used items. Sustainable Development Goal #12, Responsible Consumption and Production, challenges us to think more about our purchasing and discarding practices, emphasizing ways to minimize harmful impacts on the environment. Partnering with Finger Lakes ReUse stores, and supported by an Environmental Justice Community Impact Grant from the NY DEC, I am working with teachers and youth in schools and after-school programs to raise their awareness of where the items we buy come from, the sources of materials in them, the ways to prolong the usefulness of items for others, and the impact that our personal decisions and actions have on the environment.