Community Mural Toolkit

A facilitator's guide to mobilising community environmental action.

In 2006, Live & Learn Environmental Education conducted research into perceptions of environmental issues in several Maldivian communities. The research suggested that there are a range of issues that have significant impact on people’s health, well being and livelihoods. Each island in the Maldives is unique, and hence each island identified different environmental issues, however several issues emerged as the most significant and therefore priority issues for the Island communities:
•  Water (quality & quantity)
•  Waste (solid & sewage, collection, treatment& disposal),
•  Beach erosion (minimisation), and
•  Health (links to water).

It is often difficult for an outsider or visiting ‘expert’ to understand the important environmental issues in a community, this environmental education toolkit acknowledges the need for communities to identify their own environmental issues that they consider to be significant. The process of identifying and exploring the impacts of environmental issues on the community is central to the learning outcomes in this toolkit. Instead of focusing on a predetermined issue, this toolkit guides the community toward a focus on the issues which the participants determine to be important.

The Mural Toolkit is primarily written for facilitators, in-order for them to work with community members to identify and explore environmental issues and to develop a community action project. The project is focused on developing a community mural (artwork), and is intended to model and lead the way toward further community action on environmental issues.