STEM Education in Botswana: Girls Getting Geeky

Solving puzzles is a fun activity to do with the participants, it stimulates their brain to think critically. However, as time goes on, puzzles tend to wear out or lose other pieces and this makes the activity difficult and less interesting.If we throw puzzle pieces into the trash, then it adds to the mounting garbage problem.

SSI participants decided to create anew the puzzle pieces and “upcycle” them, making their useful life longer.  The children designed fun activities and are projects to revive the old puzzle pieces.  

We collected varying sizes of puzzle pieces, planned how to use them and began the creation process. The participants created coasters with the big sized puzzles and wrote motivating messages on them that read “you are the perfect piece of SSI” for staff members. This made our staff members feel special and appreciated by their beneficiaries.

They also created accessories using the puzzles, these included necklaces and bracelets. These were not just normal accessories they were designed to symbolise special bonds between friends. They used small pieces of jigsaw puzzles that became connectors or pendants for their necklaces and bracelets.

These new creative ideas assisted the participants to think differently on recycling and realising that old things which most people throw away can be made new with some creativity. Some items can recreate beautiful and special objects for people.

On a daily basis people make choices that affect the environment either positively or negatively. Our 18-25 year olds, enrolled in the “Finding the Leader Within” program, researched the negative effects our choices have on the environment. As a result, they created awareness to preserve the environment through a community project called “Leadership goes green”. To successfully execute this project the older youth partnered with the younger in school students at SSI’s Mochudi center. These youth are part of a social and financial literacy club (Aftlateen).  Cleanico Waste Management Solutions, a private sector company specializing in segregation cages, stands and bins, clinical and hazardous waste collection and recycling awareness and education partnered with SSI youth on the project.

SSI youth and Cleanico Waste Management Solutions held a cleaning campaign on the 9^th October 2021 in Mochudi village, 40 kilometers from the capital city Gaborone. The goal of the activity was to clean up Mochudi and create awareness in the community on environmental preservation.

A total of 131 people including SSI employees picked litter from the center to Mochudi mall, a 4 kilometer stretch.  To segregate from the source, there were 10 groups which were picking different recyclables e.g. plastic bottles, clinical waste, general waste, plastics and bottles.

The most notable highlight was that a total of 441 kilograms of waste was collected on the day. A breakdown is provided below:

General waste  79kg

K4 Boxes  68kg

Plastic  83kg

White Paper 42kg

Newspaper  16kg

PET Bottles  64kg

Glass Bottles 89kg

Total;  441kg

This shows that each and every one of us can make a huge positive impact to the environment if we reduce, reuse or recycle waste and prevent it from going to our landfills which poses a serious environmental hazard to the air we breathe and the quality of our water.