To take pride in the place we came from…

This report shares detailed proceedings (process and findings) from a ‘Children and Environment’ municipality project in Emthanjeni, South Africa, supported by Save the Children Sweden (the notion of a Children and Environment project was originated by Mr Jörgen Arinell of Karlstad, Sweden and located within a twinning agreement between Karlstad and De Aar through the Agenda 21 programme). The objectives of this report are: • to give selected adults, such as municipal officials, teachers, RPA members, and children, insight into children’s rights in the environment; • to enable children to evaluate their local environment through participatory processes (in accordance with Articles 12 and 13 of the CRC); • through meeting the above objectives; and to initiate child participation in the Emthanjeni Municipality. The report includes descriptions of custom-designed workshops for adults and children. The adult training workshops involve training in environmental rights, children’s participation and participatory research with children. The workshops for adults were followed by three children’s workshops which enabled children to work in small groups making use of drawings, discussions, plenary presentations, reasoning games, role play and photography. Children were able to present their environmental concerns and were supported to develop project proposals to address their concerns