What is the ESD Professional Exchange?
The professional exchange is a regular online programme for up to 30 participants – 15 from Saxony and 15 from Uganda. Everyone takes part out of genuine interest, mostly in their free time, and contributes experience from schools, educational institutions and their own ESD practice.
The project runs from October 2025 until the end of December 2026. Following an intensive preparation phase in autumn 2025 – including introductory meetings and workshops on ESD, online tools and intercultural competence – participants have been working together in four permanent small groups since January 2026. Each group focuses on one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that is relevant to their field of work or particularly important to them:
🌾 SDG 2 – Zero Hunger
📚 SDG 4 – Quality Education
♻️ SDG 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production
🌍 SDG 13 – Climate Action
Each group brings Ugandan and Saxon participants together around the same virtual table. They meet at least once a month to exchange ideas, learn from one another and jointly develop educational materials related to their SDG that they can use in their teaching or educational work.
At the end of May 2026, all four groups had the opportunity to present their ideas to one another and provide feedback. The result: visible enthusiasm and impressive approaches. The completed materials will be presented at a final event in early November 2026.
The project is funded primarily by the Saxon State Ministry for Education and Cultural Affairs (SMK) and the Stiftung Nord-Süd-Brücken (SNSB), with additional funding provided by arche nova.
The Ugandan Project Team Visits Saxony
To ensure that the exchange was not limited to the digital sphere, the Ugandan project team visited Saxony at the end of October and beginning of November 2025. Philemon Mukisa Kirunda (Ugandan project coordinator), Margaret Nakato (Executive Director of the Ugandan partner organisation Katosi Women Development Trust) and Fiona Okwere (KWDT staff member) travelled to Germany.
The week was packed with activities. The team visited a school whose staff participate in the professional exchange, attended a networking meeting of the Uganda–Saxony partnership and met with the Saxon State Ministry for Education and Cultural Affairs. The programme also included a professional forum on global school partnerships and an ESD methodology training session at Cambio e.V.
For the Ugandan project team, the visit was a great opportunity to experience ESD in Saxony first-hand. For the arche nova team, it was at least as valuable. Working directly with KWDT, we were able to plan, fine-tune and sharpen our perspective on the project – through face-to-face conversations rather than video calls.
A Return Visit to Uganda: Experiencing ESD First-Hand
In February 2026, it was time for the return visit. A team from arche nova, including project manager Violetta Siering, travelled to Uganda.
They spent the first few days together with a group of teacher-training students from TU Dresden and visited a kindergarten, five primary schools (two of them inclusive), three secondary and vocational schools, and three universities. Teachers from many of these institutions take part in the professional exchange. One thing became clear during the visits: ESD here is not merely something written on paper – it is put into practice every day, in ways both big and small.
At Les Enfants Pre School, for example, even the youngest children take responsibility for their environment. Each child has their own plant to care for. The plants grow in repurposed car tyres, lovingly labelled with numbers and letters. In this way, the kindergarten combines environmental education with the development of basic skills. Upcycling as an educational tool – simple, yet highly effective.
One particularly impressive example can be found at Kololo Secondary School in Kampala, the partner school of Campus Cordis in Dresden: the Junior Achievers Club, a school club dedicated to sustainability.
At least twice a week, around 50–60 students aged 12 to 18 meet there voluntarily after classes. Together with their mentor Rachel Akol, an English teacher and passionate environmental activist, they work to make the school grounds more plastic-free. The collected waste is turned into products such as:
- water-resistant backpacks, key rings and bags made from plastic bags
- rubbish bins made from plastic bottles
- insect repellents made from plastic bottle caps
- baskets, decorations, small tables and a “learning tree” made from plastic bottles
The club takes part in national and international competitions with its ideas and inventions. One particular success story began when Rachel had her students build a “robot tree” from bottles as an educational tool for a competition. Their journey took them from a school competition to national competitions and ultimately to a global presentation in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
We want to promote a litter-free environment. Through advocacy, we give talks during assemblies to create a sense of responsibility among learners. Waste materials are collected and recycled for other purposes, resulting in the production of different useful products. Learners also become valuable members of their communities by transferring the skills they learn at school.
What Comes Next?
The four small groups are currently continuing to work on their educational materials. They will present them together at a final event in early November 2026.
A face-to-face exchange between the participants – in Saxony or Uganda – would be the next dream: an opportunity to test the materials they have developed together, learn from one another and strengthen the connections that have grown online. Whether this will be possible depends on future funding. But one thing is already clear: this exchange shows how much can be achieved when people come together with passion and curiosity.
