Community responses to environmental education initiatives

Abstract

This qualitative case study concerns the educational processes undertaken in an environmental programme of Timeleni Bomake group at Nsingweni, a rural community in Swaziland. At the time of the research most of the group members were elderly women with about four men among whom is the facilitator, a teacher at Nsingweni Primary School.

The inquiry occurred through fieldwork involving interviews, observation and photography. Data analysis followed an inductive process that builds concepts.

Formed in 1990, the group saw dramatic economic gain in the 1990's through a gardening project supported by Yonge Nawe environmental action group and the facilitator.

At the beginning of the new millennium the participants' intrinsic abilities to sustain the group were put to test. Challenges emerged that reduced the enthusiasm of some group members such that the study found the group at the edge of collapse. This report concludes with recommendations on ways to sustain community programmes.