EARTHCARE Eco Kids

Project Title: EARTHCARE Eco Kids Education Program

Project Country: The Bahamas

Survey Completion Date: 2013

Organization(s) responsible for the project: EARTHCARE
This organization supports graduate-level research projects and accepts project volunteers

Project Director: Gail Woon

Mailing address: P. O. Box F 40064

City, State, Country: Freeport, Grand Bahama Island, The Bahamas
Tel: 242 374-4945 Fax: N/A
Email: earthcare.bahamas@yahoo.com

Web site address: earthcare.online |

Project summary:

EARTHCARE Eco Kids meet on weekends, learn about issues then go on a FUN field trip to reinforce the issue of the day.
We are proud to boast that 85% of our students and volunteers are female.We really want to continue this exciting program. Many of our female students have gone on to become environmental professionals coming home after college to assist with conservation efforts in the Bahamas. EARTHCARE is an environmental education NGO (non-governmental organization) that works on current environmental issues facing the nation of the Bahamas and the World. Members visit schools to inform students and teachers about issues affecting the environment. Our mission is to empower students and teachers to get involved and be proactive with their voice. We encourage them to write to the Government of The Bahamas and express their views on current environmental issues. Specific topics that we constantly cover include Pollution, Climate Change, Habitat Destruction, Sustainable Fisheries, Humane Treatment of Animals, Invasive Species among others.

Our goal is to continue our environmental education efforts teaching about issues such as habitat loss, invasive species, coastal management, pollution, unsustainable fishing methods and various aspects of biology, physics and chemistry that are seen in the Bahamian natural environment. The EARTHCARE Environmental Education program teaches students about the value of mangroves as well as, ground, air and water pollution, about Habitat Destruction, about Sustainable Fisheries, and Humane Treatment of Animals among others with field trips on the Glassbottom Boat, to the Lucayan National Park, the Pine Ridge Landfill, the Industrial Area of Grand Bahama, Paradise Cove where they are able to snorkel on the largest Reef Ball installation in the country, to name a few.

Principal project objectives:

Project Began: 2013

Project Concluded: N/A - Ongoing

Funder(s):

1) Awesome Without Borders and a funder which prefers to remain anonymous

Annual project budget, in U.S. dollars: $1,000.00 to $25,000.00

Principal accomplishments to date: We have worked with students for the grant periods and taught them about various aspects of environmental issues, reinforcing this with fun field trips.

Anticipated accomplishments for the next year: We are unsure what the future holds as the majority of our funding has been discontinued. We are striving to find a new source of funding to keep the program alive.

Project’s monitoring and evaluation methodology: A quiz is given at the beginning of the program and again at the end of the program so that we can evaluate how much of the information is retained by the students.

Lessons learned from at least one year’s work on this project: The project works best when the parents are supportive and in communication with the coordinators.

Project Conclusions/Final Thoughts: We hope to continue this program as it has been very successful over the years if we can secure future funding/

Web sites that have further information about this project:

http://awesomewithoutborders.org/grant/earthcare-eco-kids/

https://www.awesomefoundation.org/en/projects/88597-earthcare-eco-kids