Eco believes that setting the foundation and infrastructure and clearing the path and obstacles to learning and life experience of our children is first an opportunity and more importantly a responsibility.
Sustainable Garden Project in South Africa
In 2022, Eco launched a Sustainable Garden project at the Marais Gedenk Primary school in Hondeklip Baai, located in the Northern Cape near the company’s offshore license.
Over the past year, we’ve established strong ties with school principal Ms S.J. Ross, and she identified food security as a key issue for the region.
We worked with her to design a garden from a social sustainability perspective:
- Cultivating people by establishing a food gardening culture
- Cultivating plants by building up knowledge on how to plant food gardens within their biome
- Setting up a support structure for ‘growers’ to know where to ask for advice
With the program, children learn permaculture techniques to develop systems based on crop diversity, resilience, natural productivity and sustainability. They will be able to support the school feeding program with locally produced food. So far, they’ve planted and grown over 300 fruits and vegetables from beans, beetroot, cabbages, tomatoes, watermelons, to onions and plums.
And, the program aims to empower the children and wider community with the skills to maintain a self-sufficient and sustainable food garden.
A New School Library and Computer Room in Guyana
In 2019, Eco joined forces with The Pomeroon Trading Community Development Program to jointly finance and manage projects in Guyana focusing on education.
Our first project is the funding of a new library and computer room for the Kabakaburi Primary School in the Kabakaburi Village along the Pomeroon River. Access to schools in this rural area is difficult, as the only mode of transport is boat.
We have equipped the school library with textbooks, story books, novels and educational materials. And, we’ve provided computer equipment so students can learn basic IT skills and have access to the internet.
Eco and Pomeroon has also organised skills training to ensure that teachers are able to independently manage the facility.
School Supplies and Infrastructure in South Africa and Namibia
Eco wants to enrich the school experience for children in communities near their operations in South Africa and Namibia. That includes the South African primary school in Hondeklip Baai, where we’re undertaking our sustainable garden project as well as seven schools in Namibia.
Our goals is for students, and their teachers, to have the tools and environment for academic success:
Classroom collateral
- Computer systems and equipment for classrooms
- Teaching materials
- TV screens, Projector, DVD player, radio cassettes
- Classroom renovation
Improved infrastructure
- Building materials for classrooms and school yard
- Construction materials for protective fencing around the schoolyard
- Proper food preparation and storage, with new refrigeration units
- Clean water filtration
Responding to the Covid-19 Pandemic
Considering the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic, Eco and its partners played their part in helping Namibia and Guyana respond to the international crisis. Eco diversified its usual approach (focused on SDG’s 4, 7 and 8) to respond to what was urgently required at the time.
In 2020-21, we sourced and shipped a large amount of personal protective equipment to the Ministry of Health and Social Services in Namibia. Our donation included 250,000 disposable face masks, 1,000 infrared digital thermometers and 5,000 face shields.
In Guyana, our JV partner Tullow donated and distributed food and sanitation hampers to 100 households and sponsored a ‘MASK It Up’ initiative, distributing 10,000 face masks to six communities.
