South Asia Youth Environment Network (SAYEN) - Education For Youth

SAYEN initiatives during the year focused on engaging youth in sustainability action on their campuses and in the community, and fostering new and strengthening on-going partnerships. SAYEN was recognized as the National Focal Point for the Young Reporters for the Environment (YRE) initiative of the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) in 2016, and conducted the Litter Less Campaign during the year. SAYEN Secretariat supported the youth events organized at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, IIT Mumbai, IIT Roorkee, Birla Institute of Technology (BITS) Goa and SVIRM, Chennai, where guidelines on organizing of events sustainably were shared with the institutes. CEE continues to receive interns and the SAYEN Secretariat facilitates the process of placement of interns within CEE.

• SAYEN Internships

Throughout the year, around 120 interns and volunteers are placed in various offices of CEE to work on various thematic areas with the ongoing projects. They are involved in communication material development, research, survey, field work, campaigning and fundraising activities. As a part of the ongoing partnership arrangement with KURVE Wustrow, a peace-building organisation in Germany, CEE is hosting two volunteers during 2017-18.

• Young Reporters for Environment – India

Young Reporters for the Environment (YRE) is a network of international youth engaged in Education for Sustainable Development, coordinated by the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE). Young Reporters, aged between 11 and 21 in more than 25 countries, investigate environmental problems and issues and propose solutions through published investigative reporting, photographic and video journalism. Every year the best article (written in English), photograph and video in each age category are submitted to an international competition, following a national one. This year, the competition is focused on reporting about local environmental issues in the context of any of the 17 sustainable development goals. Students can select any one mode of creative - article, photo and video.

YRE Litter Less Campaign Teachers Training Workshop - April 2017 : YRE Litter Less Campaign is an awareness campaign focusing on waste management issues, using Environmental Journalism as a skill for Youth, to explore their surroundings, identify problems and find solutions, and share them with the wider community through journalistic pieces: written reports, photographs or videos. The programme was implemented in 30 schools. The activities included an orientation and training of teachers, students’ projects, and concluded with an Award Ceremony in November 2017. The national winning entries were forwarded to the international jury for awards.

YRE Workshop in Lucknow : YRE as a pilot has been introduced in schools in India and Lucknow is one of the cities participating. A teachers’ orientation cum training workshop was conducted by CEE in Lucknow in April 2017. Over 20 teachers from schools in Lucknow willing to be part of this competition attended the workshop. Teachers were briefed that YRE will enable participants to develop skills and expand their knowledge. Besides gaining a deeper understanding of sustainable development, the programme will enhance communication and citizenship skills, individual initiative, teamwork, critical analysis, social responsibility and leadership.

YRE Orientation in City Montessori School, Lucknow : An orientation session on YRE was conducted by CEE in March 2018 at City Montessori School in Lucknow, in which over 20 environment coordinators participated. Besides providing details of the competition, CEE team also shared information about CEE’s ongoing EE programmes for schools.