Learning to Trust the Natural World

“Programme participants will not only feel the powers of the sun in the Namib, but will experience first-hand the sun’s ability to light a room and to cook a meal.”

The Namib Desert Environmental Education Trust (NaDEET) is a non-profit, Namibian trust established in 2003. Located 100 km south of Sesriem/Sossusvlei on the NamibRand Nature Reserve, NaDEET is touted as the place where theory meets practice because participants gain the tools to be able to take environmentally aware actions with them when they return to their homes and communities. An environmental success story that imparts knowledge in a way that develops a person’s trust upon the natural world. People who have visited the centre return home with knowledge on solar cooking and measuring your enviro-footprint and more.

The NaDEET centre offers a variety of environmental education programmes and activities that revolve around the key concepts of energy, water, waste and biodiversity. “When we first started, we essentially only had primary school programmes. Today we have four programmes – primary, secondary, community and educator,” says Viktoria Keding, co-founder and Director of NaDEET.

In the first year of operation, 120 school children from four school groups visited NaDEET. More than ten years later, the enthusiasm to protect the natural environment in Namibia by educating its citizens to practice a sustainable lifestyle is just as strong, and the momentum continues to build. By 2013, a total of 230 school and adult groups – over 9,000 participants in total – had participated in environmental education programmes at NaDEET

The Facts

• The NaDEET Centre runs purely on solar power
• The NaDEET Centre has provided solar cooked food for over 10 years to over 9,000 participants. That is between 50,000 – 75,000 solar cooked plates of food served
• NaDEET Centre average water use is 13 litres per day per person (which is equivalent to one toilet flush!)
• NaDEET Centre has recycled more than 5 tonnes of waste of which 50% has been composted and reused to produce vegetables for the centre’s meals since 2003

For the full story on NaDeet by Travel News Namibia take a look here : Conservation Education for Life