An environmentalist with a passion for childhood development, Michaela Geytenbeek, is championing environmental consciousness for the next generation by rekindling humanity’s natural affinity with nature.
Geytenbeek founded the Kinship Programme with the philosophy of encouraging the construction of environmental identity within the self-identity. She said the programme provides children with the opportunity to interact with nature regularly and encourages immersive and sensory engagement with an aim to develop an emotional bond with the Earth. “I’ve always been a bit of a nature child and over the years I’ve noticed the developing dissonance between urban children and the wild environment. I was doing my masters in environmental engineering, working on a project on waste in the uMgeni River. During an interview someone asked if the project was ‘the solution we have been waiting for’. It really dawned on me that we were just designing a bandaid and that the heart of the problem was that people didn’t have a respect for the environment,” said Geytenbeek.
She explained that during hard lockdown, after much research on environmental education and the extinction of experience, the more she realised the role of splitting with nature as one of the key contributors to the environmental crisis. Geytenbeek described the theory as an explanation of declining qualities, attitudes and ways of learning and thinking in relation to nature. “Simply put, our disconnect with nature is responsible for our slow response and reluctant action to challenges such as climate change, deforestation and pollution. Each generation that does not develop a relationship with nature, passes this disconnect on, in a sense causing connection to become extinct. Because these natural experiences and connections won’t exist for the next generation, they won’t know how to connect or even that they should.
In this way, an initial disconnect mounts into a polycrisis of a disconnected race of apathetic humans who do not recognise the ongoing environmental degradation as an issue for concern. “I discovered forest schooling and realised that, in Durban, we didn’t have anything that provided children with the opportunity to connect with the wild environment. Most of our wild spaces aren’t frequently accessed, be it for a lack of time in our urban lives or fear of safety, to name a few. As soon as the lockdown eased, I launched Kinship,” Geytenbeek said. Sessions are held at various locations in Durban North, uMhlanga and Ballito as well as experience sessions that aim to encourage a sense of adventure or awe amongst the children such as rock-climbing or paddling. This, said Geytenbeek, strengthens the bonds of “nature connectedness”, which is defined as a sustained awareness of the interrelatedness between one’s self and the rest of nature. “We host our sessions in Virginia Bush, uMhlanga Nature Reserve, Bridgevale Park and the Shongweni Nature Reserve – basically anywhere that is wild. We have a variety of activities from basic navigation and rope skills to building giant birds’ nests and spider webs out of wool. We play a wonderful game called ‘predators track prey’. We remove water hyacinth, do beach clean-ups, build rivers, paddle, rock-climb and go on overnight hikes. We have constellation evenings amongst other activities,” said Geytenbeek.
She said that during the beginning phases, it’s important that children direct their own relationship with nature. At a later stage, after dipping their toe into more directed, structured and thought-provoking experiences, Geytenbeek observed that this is usually when pro-environmental behaviour begins to develop. “From the beginning, I decided that I would journal my observations of the sessions so that I would be able to track the children’s progress. The first session I led, the children cried that they were scared of the forest. By week four they were requesting to take their shoes off, week five remarks that ‘I love this place’ were flying around. I’ve also noticed a growing emphasis to champion conservation, especially amongst the older children.” Geytenbeek is presently completing her master’s in philosophy in development using the Kinship Programme as a vessel for inquiry into stimulating the development of nature consciousness. “I’m hoping to shape the understanding I gain during my master’s and observations at Kinship to create an emphasis for schools to adopt a more tangible and hands-on approach to environmental education, especially for younger grades,” she said
Geytenbeek said that humans, particularly children, were suffering the consequences of not interacting with nature. Studies illustrate that green spaces and natural landscapes have a positive effect on children’s psychosocial development, including emotional regulation, perceived self-worth, creativity, concentration, motivation and motor skills. In urban settings, the brain is very stimulated and remains in a state of constant alertness. In nature, however, the brain enters into a state of contemplative attention that is restorative and necessary for providing space for development. “It would be wonderful if a lesson period could be dedicated to exploring wild spaces with our young ones. I’m going to be visiting a few Forest Schools abroad next year to see what I can learn from them and weave everything together, while placing a Durban spin on it,” said Geytenbeek.
