Full name: Ko Hoi Lam

University: The University of Hong Kong

University contact:

Your key contact or supervisor at your University

Full name: Dr Karen Man Kei Chan

Department: Faculty of Education

Email address: karencmk@hku.hk

Title of your LiA project

Reaction for Impact Initiative: Climate Change

The organisation/charity you are working with: Makesense

Organisation/charity contact: americas.makesense.org

Your key contact (supervisor) at the organisation/charity

Full name: Kenia Jiménez Saca

Email address: kenia.jimenez@makesense.org

The need or cause you are supporting

Children face a lack of sustainable lifestyle awareness and education to become an environmentally conscious member of society in the future. So we need to consider how to educate the public (especially children) about sustainable lifestyle that is in line with Huerto Roma Verde’s values and initiatives.

Goal

Our goal is to create education materials for Huerto Roma Verde about 10Rs and key plants in their greenhouse, so children can learn about actions that they can take to live a sustainable lifestyle.

Objectives

1. Develop and produce educational booklets about the 10Rs (rethink, reduce, reuse, repair, recycle, regenerate, etc.) by week 4, to be given to 50 children joining HRV’s summer school.
2. Create and signage for plants the greenhouse by week 6, to increase visitors’ understanding of the purpose of the plants planted inside the greenhouse.
3. Create a stencil design for the waste sorting system by week 5, to be given to families to sort their home waste.

Ideas to overcome barriers or challenges

1. Delays in Material Production

The possible challenge is printing and installing graphic materials can take longer than intended. Therefore, we planned to establish a detailed timeline with buffer periods. We also plan to coordinate early with companies that can do the printing and regularly monitor progress and adjust schedules as needed. We will also try to shorten the time used for other controllable tasks like translation and designing to create more buffer time.

1. Cultural or Language Barriers

Another challenge is that the message about 10Rs is rather complex, so children find difficulty fully understand the messages. Furthermore, we only know English, but the majority of visitors to Huerto Roma Verde are Mexican. Therefore, the Spanish-speaking visitors may have trouble understanding the information materials we make. Our solution is to use simple and visual storytelling in our booklets to help children understand our messages. We also plan to engage the volunteers to translate our content, so we can include both English and Spanish information in our banner, to make sure all visitors can understand.

1. Logistics of mobilizing volunteer team

Lastly, we have a very big volunteer team of 15 people. It will be a challenge to find suitable work for everyone and keep track of everyone’s progress. We plan to make a work plan and share it with the volunteers, we will also make a google form to ask about their preference and availability. This way, the volunteers can join in with the work we are doing each day, and we would know who is available to help out at each date.

Milestones per week

• Week 1: 1^st visit to HRV, gain basic idea of their needs
• Week 2: Create draft for education materials
• Week 3: First meeting with volunteers
• Week 4: Complete booklet and plant signs
• Week 5: Complete stencil design, print booklets
• Week 6: Final pitch