How to teach environmental change, climate change impact, and water scarcity in a tangible, down-to-earth way? Funded by the US Forest Service International Programs, GEBAL has produced an open access teaching module for students between 4 and 18 years of age. The creative teaching module combines a freely downloadable comic book, a short documentary film, a Power Point presentation, and an interactive teaching booklet that is available HERE in both English and Arabic languages.
The “Heiz Heroes” comic (in ENGLISH / ARABIC) was developed by the local comic artist MacToot through a participatory comic art project conducted in the Western Desert Oasis of El Heiz. The comic is based on locally significant locations, stories, and oral histories. Moreover, the two lead characters of our comic book really exist! And so does the El Heiz Water Education Center where our story begins. Living in El Heiz, Youssef and Badr have actively participated in various training programs organized by the El Heiz Water Education Center. They also contributed the most creative drawings to our participatory comic art project and, in this way, became our real-life Heiz Heroes!
Delivering teaching modules that are anchored in place make educational themes more real and tangible. The history of the Western Desert is rich and exciting and lends itself to teaching global content through a local lens. Once covered by sea, Egypt’s Western Desert is now characterized by a beautiful variety of rock landscapes, including the Black and White Desert National Parks. The famous limestone formations of the White Desert are not only a tourist attraction, but also bear testimony to its marine history. The sedimentary limestone rocks that were formerly the bodies of marine animals now create the magnificent limestone formations that make the White Desert so famous. The oases located in the area depend solely on waters extracted from the finite Nubian Sandstone Aquifer, a sustainability concern for the livelihoods of local communities. Given the limitations of the natural water source, sustainable water management is very important here, particularly given the impacts of climate change on both the natural environment and local agricultural livelihoods.
Please enjoy our journey through time and natural history and feel free to share this interactive teaching module with your friend and peers! For questions about the Heiz Heroes, please feel free to email tina.jaskolski[at]gebalegypt.com
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