STANFORD CONSERVATION INSPIRED BY STANFORD SWOP SHOP GREEN SCHOOL

By: Melissa Mc Alpine

Green School South Africa situated in Paarl is a school that educates for sustainability in a progressive, learner-centred way. Their focus is to prepare young people to thrive in an ever-changing world, and their approach is to educate for sustainability through community-integrated, entrepreneurial learning in a natural environment.

Every year Green School arranges a staff camp which is part team-build, part planning and part contribution towards a good cause. Last year they set up camp in Greyton where they contributed their time and assistance towards Reforestation Day which was held while they were there. The team helped clear alien trees and assisted with planting some fynbos species.

This year Green School chose Stanford as their inspiration for the year. As a school that focuses on sustainability, Green School is a zero-waste organisation with its own recycling centre, sewage system, and waste management system, Stanford’s Swop Shop was the ideal choice.

As Lisa Witherden, a teacher and camp coordinator from Green School said in her letter to Linda Strydom: “We love the idea of Swop Shop and would really like our contribution to the community in Stanford to be with you. We like to contribute our time and hands in any way we can. I think this would just be a wonderful concept for the teachers and staff to see and learn from. We hope that our recycling centre at school will be a hub for recycling in the Paarl valley one day, and so we have much to learn.”

As they weren’t able to join in on a realtime Swop Shop session which usually happens on a Monday, the Swop Shop volunteers set up a mock session for them on Thursday 13 July. The enthusiastic Green School volunteers met up outside the Swop Shop at 09h30. After a quick briefing they set out into the community to collect recyclable materials and were back by 10h15 to line-up, have their bags weighed and receive tokens to ‘shop’ for their efforts.

In a show of thanks, volunteers from Green School donated various items to Swop Shop such as secondhand clothing, toiletries and household goods.

“I believe their team will have gone home with lots of ideas for their recycling project in Paarl. It truly was an honour to have members of Green School here, and the morning was thoroughly enjoyed by both the teachers as well as all of us,” said Linda Strydom afterwards.