Plastic pollution.  

• • Refillable water bottles – avoid buying small plastic bottles and keep a refillable bottle on your desk and in your car
  • The need of a favourite latte or cappuccino is strong after lockdown.  Use an affordable refillable cup – some places offer a discount so it’s a double win. 

Reduce your carbon footprint 

• • Travel with someone in your family, friend or Covid19 bubble to reduce the number of vehicles emitting fumes
  • Plant an indigenous tree.  If you aren’t sure where or how contact local forestry, garden centres and environmental NGOs 
  • Use local transport rather than self-driving.  Perhaps set this as a future goal if you aren’t comfortable right now.

Buy local through supporting markets and local artisans rather than big chain stores.

• • Stop at local markets and farms 
  • Support your local independent businesses when buying birthday, wedding and baby gifts, as well as treats and special items 

Reduce waste food.  

• • As a tourist you tend to buy what you need so instead of the big weekly shop only buy what you need, and avoid the bulk buy offers on fresh items.  
  • Many councils / town boards collect food waste.  If not find a local farmer or smallholding where food waste is a delicious meal for hungry pigs!

Please do your bit to reduce your environmental impact at home as you would when you come to visit us in the beautiful Eswatini.

Written by Jackie Wall, Tours Director

This year I had some very special help as we began the year end assessments of the children; my mother and nieces from the USA! After a 14 hour journey from Detroit Michigan, USA to The Kingdom of Eswatini, they were thrilled to get a glimpse into what I do at All Out Africa.

A few years ago, we created a curriculum with the assistance of some amazing interns with decades of early education experience. This year we have decided to put our lesson plans to the test by creating a short verbal exam for the children so we can assess what they are excelling at, and where we are struggling. This information is extremely valuable. Through the assessments we are able to spot kids who are falling behind, and we are also able to see what lessons or NCP’s may need a bit more attention as we go into next year.

This year we started at Mvujini NCP. It was amazing to see how far the kids have come in one short year! The children ranged from 2 years – 7 years old,  and each one astonished my team of family-assessment officers. The smallest child, at 2 years old sang through her ABC’s and each child counted higher than our assessment questions required! This is an extraordinary accomplishment for our NCP teachers and the children that attend our preschools.

We will continue these assessments throughout the month and I am personally excited to see our office and community team celebrate their hard work at graduations this year. Well done. And thank you to my family for your contributions this week!

Stay tuned for our end of the year assessment results!

Written by Ginger Green, Communication Manager

When I started hearing or learning about the effects of pollution and climate change back in my days in high school. I honestly didn’t understand why leaders from various countries, can actually have a conference or summit on the environment. I only realized years later when I was in varsity that those submissions, suggestions and recommendations made by those great leaders were actually true, but needed to be implemented by the human population.

Almost three decades later our very own Prime Minister of Eswatini declared that Cabinet Ministers, together with community members of the Eswatini society have a monthly “Clean Eswatini” campaign.  This declaration was made in June of this year. So the idea or mandate was that “Clean Eswatini” should happen every last Saturday of each month. This past weekend, All Out Africa volunteers and staff members joined the community of eBuka under the Lobamba Constituency in cleaning the streets.

When we arrived just after 8 am, it seemed like the community members started early, judging on the amount refuse bags filled with waste plastic and paper. What made it more mind blowing was that all refuse bags where neatly placed on top of each other? Most of the collected waste had a central drop off point/facility that we call in Eswatini a “Gogo Centre”. Gogo Centers are where most community meetings are held and are always located at the central part of a particular community. So refuse bags where place just outside this facility’s gate. After the waste collection, community leaders and members gathered and community leaders thanked all participants involved. One of our volunteers spoke about “how she enjoyed this morning’s clean-up campaign, and how community was welcoming throughout the morning”

Our next “Clean Eswatini” campaign will be on the 30^th November 2019 and we are hoping for another successful one.  If you would like to join us in the next clean up, please contact info@alloutafrica.com

Written by Tjengisa Dlamini, All Out Africa Social Project Coordinator