Now what? Conclusion

Watch Malnutrition, a silent epidemic on PBS. See more from Need To Know.

After all and after watching this video about malnutrition in countries such as Africa, India, Bangladesh and Mexico I came to a conclusion that Environmental awareness and sustainability is something that has to start from within.  We have seen along the years NGOs trying to "instigate" guiltiness around the world in order to make other people who don't suffer from malnutrition (example) to feel responsible for those who does. In my opinion, that method only look at the end result of a problem, in this case poverty. It does not educate individuals in order to empower than to make better decisions in the first place to contribute in a more positive and conscious way to such problems. I always feel overwhelmed when I see videos or documentaries such "A silent epidemic", but is something (unfortunately) that after a while disappears and that is because it might be something really impressive but it is not something that we see in our everyday life. 

Fortunately for me and for a bunch of bright people at Uni, we are having the opportunity to understand the real causes of such a problem and a whole other problems involving the environment, our society and economy. But we have not just been exposed to the results, we have had the chance to see what causes those issues, who are responsible for them and how we can perhaps make a difference to solve those issues.

For the past couple of decades, Education for sustainable development has been playing an important role in the international agenda of organizations such as United nations, IUCN, UNESCO to name a few. Government leaders and private sector recognized the importance of the creation of partnerships in order to bring about the change in countries suffering with poverty, food security, climate change and so forth.

It has been recognized that Education is the only way to raise human beings from being exploited, poverty and inequality.

"While we can draw upon experiences of the

past to solve the problems of today and tomorrow,

the reality is that citizens of the world will

have the task of learning their way towards

sustainability. Education is therefore central

to learning and to a more sustainable future".

(UNESCO, 2012)   

UNESCO and UN in partnership with governments have created important strategic frameworks such as the Decade of Education for Sustainable development in order to promote the vision of a more sustainable and educated community through different forms of education, public awareness and training activities. It highlights the critical role of education and life skills programmes in enabling communities to create sustainable local solutions to problems related to poverty and vulnerability (UNESCO 2012). 
Nowadays, with the advance of technology and Internet, sustainability issues can be easily disseminated through the whole world. Globalization has made great improvement on the way individuals see and relate to global problems. Who could imagine that one day we were be talking about the impacts that our consumerism patterns could make in someone else life living on the other side of the world? Information and education is the most valuable asset that a human being could have on his/her entire life and only through that we can really connect to the problems faced by the humanity.
Through education for sustainable development I was able to really connect myself and understand about the major problems embedded in our society, and not just economical problems but all other social and environmental issues that I wasn't aware of. EFSD helped to develop my ability to create my own process of embedding sustainability into my everyday life. Being able to imagine where I would like the world to be on the next 20 30 or 50 years and at the same time knowing that I can be part of the transformation through being a facilitator or I would say being part of the solution of our next challenges.
Having the opportunity to design this reflective learning journal through a digital platform made me realize the importance of these new revolution of social media to Sustainable development. Having the access of all different websites, videos (you tube), online reports and so forth has shifted the way we learn and also the way we build individuals capacity. I hope that this journey is only the beginning of my learning curve towards sustainability and perhaps it will help me to become a agent of change within my organization, community and environment.

Thanks