Scientific progress and science teaching:
Basic knowledge, interdisciplinary and ethical issues

KIDS HELPING KIDS

AUSTRALIA and MALAYSIA

The Green Teams Project is an environmental citizenship program that aims to develop values, skills and databases of information through the efforts of Western Australian (WA) school students so as to restore "environmental" assets to the community. At present, the Education Department of WA includes in the curriculum framework the Society and Environment Learning Outcomes. This area is intended to enable students to construct a positive view of themselves as responsible citizens, capable of devising and acting on solutions that improve the democracy process and ecological sustainability. Kids Helping Kids (KHK) is a Greenteams project trying to challenge local state and federal governments and communities throughout Australia to provide more public education facilities on the environment and to include environmental studies in primary and secondary curricula up to university level.
The project also focuses on making available all the information on the chemicals and fillers used in pesticides and poisons to the public and to fight against the use of nuclear energy while promoting community involvement.

Kids Helping Kids is an organisation of children, which runs an annual environmental conference of children. One hundred delegates from around the state coming from primary and secondary schools have the opportunity to meet at the conferences to discuss environmental issues (water, air pollution, etc.) and take part in a variety of workshops and activities, including explorations. The students take on the role of keynote speakers, workshop organisers and ambassadors, setting the conference framework with the assistance from "informed" adults. Then, a conference born from the determination of students is designed by students and is implemented by the students. At the closing ceremony, a draft list of challenges are presented to the Minister for the Environment, and it is distributed to Federal, State and Local Government agencies and schools throughout Western Australia. In 1996, Australia ran its first conference where 100 students from as far away as Christmas Island and Mt Barker and a contingent from Malaysia attended.
At present, Kids Helping Kids is working very closely to the Junior Environmental Group of Malaysia (JEGOM). The Malaysian organisation has formed a global network with environmental groups in Australia, South Africa, Thailand and Indonesia and is proposing an air-watch activity starting in 2001 in these countries.

The KHK Project was created after 1995, when four students representing Western Australia went to the United Kingdom to the first United Nation's Children Conference on Environment called "Leave it to us". This event pointed out the importance of children's opinion in environmental matters. On their returning from the UK, the students formulated a plan to stage their own conference in order to pass on the knowledge that they had acquired. Based on these students' proposal, Kids Helping Kids was born.
This kind of programs, which are now developing in many countries, take the opportunity of listening to the children in ecological issues and redirecting the knowledge as a question of adults.
It has been recognised that the governments have many difficulties to find solutions to environmental problems. Paying attention to the children's vision is not only useful but it also improves the awareness and participation of future citizens in environmental issues.

Catrina Aniere
Project Co-ordinator
Kids Helping Kids
P.O. BOX 831 South Perth 6951 Western Australia
Tel/Fax: (08) 9368 1219
E-mail: envsound@cantech.net.au
Website:http://www.edsite.com.au/khk/ www.eco-group.org

Institutional Partners
United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP)
Educational Department of Western Australia
Financial Partners
City of South Perth, Perth Zoo, South Perth Primary School, other independents organisations in Australia.

1996,the first KHK Conference held at the Perth Zoo.

2001, YAWA (Malaysia) has received the Global 500 Roll of Honour from UNEP for its environmental awareness activities.