Through the government-funded Public Economic Stimulus Programme, 37 interns (aged between 20 to 35) were employed over a period of 6 months at the Biodiversity Education and Public Engagement (BEPE) Centres located at nine of SANBI’s National Botanical Gardens (NBG) (excluding Hantam and Kwelera).

A community-based project for young people to access employment through the biodiversity sector whilst educating the community was identified as an opportunity. A key task that the interns had to perform was to identify opportunities to make the science of biodiversity more accessible to communities. Due to the varied contexts at each national botanical garden and its surrounding communities, the project had to be responsive to the varied circumstances and realities. The main objective of the change project was to establish a monitoring and evaluation system which would provide valuable insights to inform future capacity development approaches of interns engaged in community initiatives.

To read more about this project and other SST linked projects, access the full article here: https://sustainabilityteachers.org/change-projects/south-africa/