1) The Ghata Project
The Ghata Project brings education to refugees during prolonged crises to ensure educational continuity upon their return home. The Ghata (Arabic word for cover) is an educational facility that can be assembled in 6 hours and disassembled in 3 hours and can withstand severe weather conditions. This restorative built environment increases knowledge attainment, reduces distress, and nurtures hope for displaced and refugee communities.
The portable, scalable model can also be used in response to climate-related disasters. Displaced communities that are unable to access school buildings can use Ghata to build temporary and portable classrooms for continued education.
2) Rori
Rori is an after school chatbot tutor built to help students accelerate their maths skills for free, via Whatsapp. It allows students to converse with Rori on their phone in their natural language. Rori delivers micro-lessons, asks practice questions and understands students’ answers, allowing students to progress at their own pace.
Rori is an innovation that can be used to ensure continuous educational support when students are not able to go to school due to climate disasters.
3) The Green Bronx Machine
The Green Bronx Machine builds healthy, equitable and resilient communities through education on urban agriculture. The organisation transforms school libraries into Wellness Centres where students can come to learn about the urban garden. Students learn to grow, cook and eat vegetables and learn about healthy lifestyles.
Through this hands-on education, students have lost weight and reduced sugar intake, as well as developed resilience and a more positive attitude to school. Improved health leads to improved school performance. The community also benefits from fresh vegetables grown from the urban farm.
This approach helps to prepare communities to cope with the challenges of climate change such as lack of access to fresh produce by locally growing vegetables and by educating students on how to grow their own food. For example, during the COVID-19 crisis, the Green Bronx Machine provided weekly grocery delivery and planted the largest organic soil farm in the Bronx.
4) Experiential Play-based learning boats
BRAC created learning boats for children living in wetland areas, river banks and coastal regions of Bangladesh to discover the joy in STEM and values education through play-based and experiential learning experiences. The three themed boats travel the riverways, making stops for children to visit and participate in activities that make STEM learning fun.
Floating classrooms can be utilised to provide education in wetland areas often affected by climate-related flooding. This approach ensures that children get to participate in unique learning experiences despite difficulties related to access in flooded areas.
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