2018 WESSA Annual Review

YOUNG REPORTERS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

YRE in 2017/2018: 36

students involved. 36 countries involved.

“Words , pictures, photographs, lyrics, sculp- tures and sports are but just a few examples of plac- es to start if you want to see the world through the eyes of the young people” (Zimasa Magudu, 2014). It would be remiss of us to ignore such a bold state- ment by a young South African leader, which is why WESSA welcomed the Young Reporters for the En- vironment (YRE) programme to our existing suite of educational programmes. YRE is an international education programme imple- mented by 34 countries with the aim of ‘giving our environment a voice’ and is managed by the Foun- dation for Environmental Education (FEE). South Af- rica, represented by WESSA, joined the global YRE network as the third (after Ghana and Morocco) Af- rican country in August 2017. YRE provides a platform for the youth to engage with local environmental and social issues, risks and best practices and highlight these through articles, photography and short videos. The WESSA YRE pro- gramme was officially launched with five Gauteng high schools on the 20th of February 2018. At the launch, the young reporters engaged with profes- sional environmental journalists like Bertus Louw from 50/50, social journalists from The Daily Vox and The Institute for Investigative Journalism, pho- tography lecturers from The Market Photo Work- shop, and short film-makers from MindAd Media. The WESSA YRE programme’s vision and strate- gy was presented at the 2018 National Operators Meeting in Slovenia, and was well received by FEE and other implementing countries. Since our launch, the young reporters from the five participating high schools have grown their interaction with the nat-

151 people reached.

ural, social, political and economic surroundings and are now able to see a link between these spheres. WESSA YRE has already made na- tional news and a few of the young reporters’ photographs will be pro- filed in an exhibition at the English Museum in Grahamstown.

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