Our Projects
Some of the projects around the world where we have promoted sustainable education.
UNICEF - Saudi Arabia, Iran, Central Asian Republics, and Kazakhstan
Near Riyadh, the orange desert sand informs our ways.
In partnership with the International Institute for Global Education at the University of Toronto and the University of Plymouth From 2002 to 2005 Lidra helped teachers reform pedagogy and develop child-friendly, context-based curriculum, focusing on civic, environmental, global, and human rights themes from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan to Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Developing Holistic Curriculum in the Middle East
Wendy helped create the first Montessori School in Iran. In 2004 she trained 12 teachers and set up four classrooms. The school opened in September with 100 students attending. In 2005 she completed assessments of the first cohort. In 2008 she trained 26 new teachers.
In 2010 she was accompanied by Lidra and two other colleagues for a summer intensive, training 360 in-service teachers and celebrating a new school built on principles of sustainability.
The First Inclusive Education teacher training manual in Albania
Lidra, with World Vision, introducing an Inclusive Education Teacher Training manual.
Lidra worked as an Education Research/Consultant, for World Vision. Leading an Albanian team, she trained 400 teachers and prepared a training module for pre-and in-service training. An Inclusive Education teacher manual was published in December 2014 and the training module was accredited for use on a national scale in 2015.
UNICEF Education Specialist in Cameroon
Lidra used her skills to conduct Capacity Building Sessions for Coaching, Training, and Support.
Since 2014, Cameroon has been experiencing and facing multiple humanitarian crises.
Yaounde, Marou, Bertoua, Doula and more are cities where Master Trainers call each other Coaches
Under the humanitarian action, in 2020, the capacity building package for Protective Learning Environment provided as key of the Education in Emergency (EiE) intervention by UNICEF, includes;
Teacher training in the provision of psychosocial support in the classroom, and school-based risk mitigation
Coaching sessions in selected schools and non-formal education centers, to enhance community participation in risk identification, vulnerability mapping, and emergency response plan
Support the relevant stakeholders (i.e. Universities, teacher training colleges, Ministries of Education) to include Psychosocial Support (PSS) and Conflict/Disaster Risk Reduction (C/DRR) training into pre- and in-service capacity building for teachers and education personnel.
Advocacy on developing and implementing Safe School Policy at national, regional and school level
Develop PSS COVID 19 Capacity building materials for teachers, education authorities and all affecting children in school, and those reached through distance learning and other alternative platforms.
The "Glocal Classroom" - Four Universities, Four Continents, One Classroom
In 2014 Richard was involved with the "Glocal Classroom" project which involved four universities on four continents building a global platform for collaboration and interchange in web-based learning and solutions.
Throughout 2014 each institution held a seminar: in Stellenbosch, South Africa; Guelph, Canada; Malmö, Sweden; and Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia.
Moldova Inclusive Education Consultancy
From November 2016 to December 2017 Bert conducted a consultancy for UNICEF to support the transition towards inclusive education in the Republic of Moldova.
UNICEF WCARO Education in Emergencies
Lidra's work on capacity building for Psychosocial Support (PSS) in the classroom is being adopted and valued by several UNICEF Country Office's in Central African Republic , Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Mauritania, Chad, Senegal, Cameroon and Ivory Coast.
The training outcomes, recommendations, and reflections of all PSS trainings - carried out during 2015 and 2018 in nine countries have supported revisions to the materials and have led to the development of a Manual for PSS Trainers, a manual of a five-day teacher training course and a PSS Teacher‘s Guide.
This approach not only reinforces the capacity of educators to foster a child-friendly environment in schools, promoting psychosocial well-being and resilience, but also aims at reorienting the teacher away from curriculum/delivery focused teaching and towards forging a healing environment for students.
UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Regional Office and ‘Safe To Learn’
With UNICEF's East Asia and Pacific Regional Office and ‘Safe To Learn’, Lidra is helping to support Ministries of Education of Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam to end violence in schools by improving learning outcomes and promoting Mental Health and Psychosocial Support.
Bangkok, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste, Philippines and Cambodia came together at a round table to share the best experiences on how to make school a safe learning environment.
Preventing and Responding to Violence at the School Level in East Asia and Pacific
West and Central Africa Life Skills Consultancy
In collaboration with UNICEF, WCARO, and Sustainability Frontiers UK, Bert and Wendy worked with colleagues David Selby and Fumiyo Kagawa from SF, UK to create Life Skills Curriculum that was culturally and contextually relevant.
The project was guided by UNICEF's 12 Life Skills: creativity, cooperation, communication, critical thinking, problem solving, negotiation, self- management, resilience, decision-making, respect for diversity, empathy, and participation. It was created in collaboration with communities for lower and upper primary and lower secondary school and integrated formal and non-formal learning practices.
Wendy: I visited Timbuktu in 1975 ... this project took me back virtually to marvel again at self-sufficiency, sustainability and cultural innovation
More on this project can be found at the Sustainability Frontiers, UK website.
Disability amongst internally-displaced children in Rakhine State
Lidra conducted research for Save the Children on disability amongst internally-displaced Muslim children living in camps or camp-like conditions in Rakhine Statein the wake of inter-community violence in Myanmar in 2012.
Lidra: I never heard the term "unwanted people" before I landed in Rakhine, north of Myanmar - the land of ancient pagodas...
They developed provisions for children of disability in the Myanmar state education system and how to bridge the gap between Education in Emergency provisions for the disabled and what the regular system provides.
UNICEF Eastern Caribbean Area Education in Emergencies consultancy
Lidra worked closely with 12 Ministries of Education of the Eastern Caribbean and other international organizations like Caribbean Disaster emergency management Agency (CDEMA), Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OESC), United Nation Development Program (UNDP) on the implementation of the Comprehensive Safe School program in the region to help nations that are effected by natural disasters.
The Second Ministerial Forum on School Safety in the Caribbean is a follow-up on the Forum held in April 2017. It will respond to the need for a collaborative and coordinated approach among actors in the region’s education sector. It will contribute to: CDEMA’s Regional Comprehensive Disaster Management (CDM) Strategy and Programming Framework 2014-2024; UNISDR’s Worldwide Initiative for Safe Schools (WISS); Caribbean Safe School Initiative; the Samoa Action Plan for SIDS, the Global Action Program on Education for Sustainable Development; the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, and to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.