For A Sustainable World

When we think about children, we think about the future. But what kind of a world are we leaving to the future ?Environmental pollution, overuse of natural resources, global warming caused by the carbon emissions related to the human activities on the planet are the massive problems challenging the future of the world. In our country, although there is a growing awareness about these topics and related educational sustainability programs for the industries and grown-up individuals, there is very little original material specifically targeted for the children that represent the future of the world. As BÇBD we believe that climate change and environmental issues are major topics in the education of children, and it is one of their fundamental rights to be well informed and prepared for big challenges and opportunities. It is our priority and commitment to develop child friendly awareness programs and related content at various platforms.

The projects we develop for a more sustainable world are coordinated by our Executive Board Member Aytül Yüksel who is an environmental engineer and a keen environmental activist:

Five Fingers, Five Steps

Bilecik Gölpazarı Cengiz Topel School students
made a field trip to Bilecik Solid Waste
Processing Facility, 2017
We developed this project for children aged 6-9 to help raise awareness about being an integral part of nature and living in harmony with nature while protecting it.

I would love to, Give me too, I do, I separate ve I sow were the 5 steps of the program that lasted for 1 month and executed in 3 schools, one in Bilecik Gölpazarı and two in İstanbul, Kağıthane and Balat.

Environmentalist Puppets

Through theatre, dance and music environmentalist puppets Obur Can (Obeze Can), Çöp Kutusu (Garbage Bin), Becerikli (Talented) offer a platform to the children to think about the scarcity of the resources of the planet, the impact of our consumption habits on the environment , reducing waste and increasing recycling. Our entertaining and educational puppet show lasted for many seasons, showed at many schools and TUYAP Book Fair, and had great reviews from the children.

Bilecik – Gölpazarı Cengiz Topel İlkokulu,
2017 Premier of the Environmentalist Puppets

Bilecik – Gölpazarı Cengiz Topel İlkokulu,
2017 Premier of the Environmentalist Puppets

Environment Workshops

Çevre Atölyeleri çocuklarımızla yaptığımız etkinliklerin vazgeçilmez bir bileşeni.

Environmental awareness workshops are the indispensable aspects of our overall activity plan.
Taking Waste Hierarchy as a central concept we developed activities of book reading, storytelling, creative drama, artistic expression and created experiments about waste reduction/ no waste, recycling/ re-using and waste management. I know my waste, I make things out of my waste, there goes my waste, I make soil out of my waste workshops were executed in an interdisciplinary approach to raise awareness in participating student groups about being an integral part of the ecosystem they live in.

In our 2-day Environment Detectives workshop during the summer school in Balat, children go around the neighborhood collecting litter, chatting with the locals about keeping the surroundings clean and reducing waste. By the end of the workshop, they proudly received their badges as environmental detectives.

İstanbul Fatih Kırımlı Aslanbey İlkokulu,
2018 Summer School, Children collecting litter
in the neighborhood

İstanbul Fatih Kırımlı Aslanbey İlkokulu,
A day at the “Environment and Nature Workshop”

Environment and Nature Workshop that lasted 7 weeks in a Balat elementary school was a much more detailed program with a science and experiment-based approach to life-cycle analysis. Students volunteered to be a part of this program and used microscopes provided by BÇBD to detect bacteria, eventually learned about the good and harmful ones.

İklim Abla is a joyful, positive character that speaks to children directly about the causes and impacts of climate change. Extreme weather events (floods, draughts, hurricanes etc.), carbon emissions, carbon footprints, water footprints, biological diversity, local seeds, trees, feelings of the plants are the examples of the concepts we develop our texts and related short videos to be published on our social media accounts. By asking questions and posting the answers online we work on building our community of ‘İklim Çocukları ‘(Climate Children).

İklim Abla and the environmentalist puppet (Talented)

Climate Children from all around the world are singing the song written by our friend and supporter Hande Akkan.