Jane Goodall’s journey to becoming a world-renowned scientist, conservationist, and animal lover started from a young age. As a child, she loved being outdoors, surrounded by nature, and learning about animals. When she was just 5 years old, her determination to discover where eggs come from led her to sit for hours in a hen house where she witnessed first-hand the wonder of a hen laying its egg. However, the animal that provided Jane with the greatest companionship and taught her most about animals’ personalities and emotional intelligence was her childhood dog, Rusty.

Jane Goodall and Rusty

Writing Competition 

Roots & Shoots want you to write a short story about an encounter with an animal (like Jane and the hen) or an animal companion (like Rusty the dog) that has changed your life or inspired you. You may be as creative as you like but please limit your story to maximum 500 words.

They’re looking for inspiring stories and a detailed description of how this has affected you.

Prizes will be given to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place!

Prizes include:

• Vaccination package for your animal friend courtesy of ICVS Veterinary Hospital, Beijing
• Free mentoring session with international education expert courtesy of Holland Park Education
• Pack of animal-shaped soaps from Blissful Handmade Soaps

Please note, this competition is for students aged 5-25 only.

How to Take Part   
Please send your finished story to issydickson@genyuya.org.cn by latest Friday, Feb 5.

For any questions please do get in touch.
Winners will be announced after the Chinese New Year holiday.

Women’s Empowerment Project   
The competition is taking place to kick-start Roots & Shoots’ Women’s Empowerment Project. Over the course of the next year, they will be organizing various events and activities, all of which are inspired by Jane Goodall’s life.

The project is divided into three chapters based on Jane’s early life, career, and work as an activist. As part of the first chapter, the focus of this event is Jane’s childhood and the impact that growing up with animals had on her in later life.

The aims of the project include:

• Bringing together a community of like-minded people and companies who care both about the environment and empowering women.
• To inspire women and girls in China through Dr. Goodall’s story to follow in her footsteps: to push themselves to follow their dreams and achieve their goals.
• To bring animals and humans together, showing the importance of inter-species relationships and that we are all connected.

KEEP READING: Save the Day: How to Rescue an Animal – and Whether You Should

Images: Courtesy of Roots & Shoots

Only a week left till Dr. Jane Goodall attends the Roots & Shoots International School Summit at Western Academy Beijing (WAB). But what’s that "X factor" about Dr. Jane Goodall that has lots of Roots & Shoots students looking forward to seeing her in person? Well, she is a world’s well-known primatologist and was named UN Messenger of Peace in 2001. Wait, there’s more – she is an inspiration icon for millions.

The main reason is that many people view her as the hero who is saving the world without super hero abilities. She is an example of how to help the environment and the animals and of how one person can make a change.

Her journey started in 1960, when she decided to go to Africa and start her pioneering research in chimpanzee behavior at the Gombe National Park in Tanzania. There, she discovered her love for animals and for nature. After years living with the chimpanzees, she realized that the world has changed in many ways. One drastic change she witnessed was the disappearance of forests resulting in the loss of habitat for many animals. After this discovery she quickly came to the conclusion that she had to do something. The animals had brought a lot of joy and happiness into her life and it was her time to give it back.

Jane’s idea was to bring awareness of environmental problems and animal protection to a wider audience. She began to travel – a lot – holding speeches and lectures about her life with the chimpanzees and about the impetus for change. She had come to the realization that young people are the foundation of the society (the “roots”) and therefore, had the power to change something as they grew older, becoming the “shoots”.

That was the beginning of Roots & Shoots, the biggest offshoot of the Jane Goodall Institute, which focuses on environmental and humanitarian education dealing with three main areas: Environment, Animals, and Community.

Roots & Shoots has been active in China since 1994 when the first R&S Group was established at WAB. Now, years later, there are more than 800 R&S Groups active in China. This year’s International School Summit is very special to Roots & Shoots members as we celebrate our 20th Anniversary! Therefore, many students will come and join us on this unique event.

As described in the previous blog posts (part 1, 2, and 3), different schools will present their achievements to Dr. Jane Goodall and all in attendance. Furthermore, the audience will listen to a panel discussion, including Dr. Goodall and one representative from each school. The students have the chance to prepare questions to either Dr. Goodall or the other international schools and directly ask them in person on that day. For those who cannot attend the summit, a livestream will be provided so that they can follow the whole panel at home. More importantly, they will see Dr. Jane Goodall holding her speech live, an experience not to be missed.

Roots & Shoots Beijing and host school WAB staff are thrilled about the  event, meeting all the students, and hearing about projects. And not to forget- so is Jane.

 Photos: R&S 

As this year’s Roots & Shoots International School Summit draws closer, the summit offers a great opportunity for students to engage with their mentor, Dr. Jane Goodall in person.

The blogs from the last couple of weeks focused on the projects of the Beijing City International School and the International School of Beijing Roots & Shoots groups.

This week’s blog spotlights Yew Chung International School (YCIS) Roots &Shoots Group and the host school, Western Academy of Beijing (WAB) Roots & Shoots Group.

YCIS R&S Group has a lot of students with creative and unique ideas. To help spread awareness about the No Shark Fin Campaign they held a Green Couture fashion show for high school students. At the show, they used sustainable materials to design their own clothes and students proudly displayed them. There was also dancing, musical performances and guest speakers from the Roots & Shoots Beijing Office. In the end of the day they raised RMB 2, 000 then donating it to Roots & Shoots where it will be directly used to help support environmental education throughout China.

The students also organized many other activities to help the environment and animals. For example, they started a recycling initiative where they put different bins into the class rooms to make their schoolmates separate their trash. They have also been holding vegan bake sales, raising awareness about the impact of meat consumption on the environment and public health.

The R&S Group of WAB is excited to be hosting the summit, as they are also celebrating the 20th anniversary of the 1st R&S group in China, beginning at WAB in 1994. Their group, divided into three separate groups by school level, High School,  Middle School and Elementary School were involved in this year’s spreading of environmental awareness. Their main project was the CleanUp Duck Lake campaign. The WAB campus lake, once, was very polluted by waste water from the local community. Their campaign raised community awareness of the efforts to keep the Duck Lake environment clean by methods such as scientifically testing the water quality, investigating the origin of the sewage and seeking strategies to prevent more local sewage lines into the lake.

Projects that were also designed to keep the environment clean were the Greenhouse and Recycling project. Both were led by Elementary School students who were very dedicated in helping the environment.
The R&S Middle School Group focused more on animal related problems. One project that is annually organized is the Wildlife Calendar. Students take pictures of different wild animals, pets or landscapes.  Afterwards, these photos will be united into one calendar, selling them to raise money for different charities.

Another project is the Bird and Plants of Duck Lake campaign. WAB R&S conducted professional research about the different species living in the Duck Lake environment, publishing the results on a board which will inform the community about the birds and plants and showing the value of the lake.

In about three weeks the event will be held at WAB. The Roots & Shoots office is very excited to see the different projects and to  get to know all Roots & Shoots friends!

Roots & Shoots is an international hands-on environmental and humanitarian education program that is about making positive change happen – for the environment, for animals and for our communities. Started in 1991 by Dr. Jane Goodall and a group of Tanzanian students who wanted to make a difference in their community, R&S is now a growing global program based on the principle that everyone has the ability to bring about change. For more information, visit our website www.genyuya.org.cn/en/

Photos: Courtesy of WAB and YCIS R&S groups

Roots & Shoots (R&S) believes in youth and their power to change the world into a better place. Children around the world form R&S groups in order to take on projects, dealing with three main topics: Environment, Animals, Community. Last week’s blog covered the preparations by Beijing City International School (BCIS) for the R&S International School Summit to be held on November 13, 2014 at Western Academy of Beijing (WAB) .

This week we will focus on the International School of Beijing (ISB) and the achievements that they are planning on presenting to Jane Goodall at the Summit.

The first R&S Group at ISB was established in 2006 and after eight years they have grown into a community of over 70 students working together for the environment, the animals and the people.

Being a large group, they have the advantage of focusing on many different issues. For example, a project helping the environment is their “Planting at Hope Healing Home”event that they organize annually. They create a positive impact on the nature and on the community, as the HHH is an orphanage taking unclaimed babies and providing them with medical care and surgery. The students from ISB plant flowers, trees and shrubs to make the environment at the orphanage more appealing.

Another environmental issue ISB dealt with this year was the increase of garbage in their community. To combat this negative development, they organized small garbage clean-ups during their meeting time in order to improve the surroundings for their school and the community.

As part of their work with wildlife, the ISB R&S students also frequently visit the Beijing Human and Animal Environmental Education center, a local animal shelter. There the students help in different ways such as with volunteering, financial support and public awareness. They come to the shelter themselves to clean animal stables and take care of the animals.

Furthermore, they hold several fundraisers each year, donating over RMB 35,000  last year alone. They also design posters about the animals at the shelter and help raise awareness about the animals thereat spring fair booths and through daily announcements. In addition, they take photos of the animals and put them on postcards, selling them during the winter season. The money raised from each postcard will be used to sponsor that animal with food and medical care.

This is but a few of the many projects and activities organized by the ISB R&S Group. As the largest group in Beijing, they will have a lot more projects to share with Jane Goodall in November.

The Summit is a great way to show everyone what Roots & Shoots Groups are doing and R&S is very excited to see all of the unique ideas of students who are willing to help the world. We’re very happy for ISB and their contributions to R&S, and look forward to their projects in the future!

Roots & Shoots is an international hands-on environmental and humanitarian education program that is about making positive change happen – for the environment, for animals and for our communities. Started in 1991 by Dr. Jane Goodall and a group of Tanzanian students who wanted to make a difference in their community, R&S is now a growing global program based on the principle that everyone has the ability to bring about change. For more information, visit our website www.genyuya.org.cn/en/

Photos: R&S ISB

This November, Dr. Jane Goodall, the renowned British researcher and founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and its youth-led community action program, Roots & Shoots, will visit Beijing. A summit will be held at the Western Academy of Beijing on November 13, which will include, apart from a speech and Q&A with Jane Goodall herself, presentations by the different student groups about their projects. This blog series will follow the work of different school groups in preparation for the big event.

Roots & Shoots builds on the legacy and vision of Dr. Goodall and places the power and responsibility for creating community-based solutions to big challenges in the hands of young people.  Through the program, students around the world map their communities to identify specific challenges their neighborhoods face.  From there, they prioritize the problems, develop a plan for a solution, and take action. 

Roots & Shoots student groups at international schools across Beijing are the perfect examples of these community-based efforts. Highly active, they have carried out projects and campaigns that have had huge impacts in their own communities and beyond. On November 13, they will all meet each other – and Dr. Goodall – to share each other’s stories at the Roots & Shoots Beijing International School Summit.

One of the schools that will be there is Beijing City International School (BCIS). Students at BCIS, with class ranges from grade 6-12, will present projects that they are currently working on, focusing on three key areas: Their organic garden, their No Shark Fin campaign and the issue of 2nd hand smoking.

The organic garden was created two years ago, first in the secondary school, then later with the elementary school opening a garden as well. Every week they take care of them, growing various plants and herbs such as lavender, mint, basil and tomatoes for use and sales for R&S fundraising. They plan to give Dr. Goodall a selection of dried herbs from the garden as a gift. They also hope to make postcards depicting the garden, collaborating with the BCIS Aqua Pulse Photography Club.

The students hope to showcase their involvement in the No Shark Fin Project, which helps to spread awareness and educate the public about the harmful effects of eating shark fin on marine ecosystems and the treatment of sharks during the finning process. They will present their progress in the project, including sharing their pledges collected from the public, making a poster for the Summit, and sharing their trip to swim with the sharks at the Blue Zoo, which they hope will happen by the end of the year.

Lastly, they will present their project on 2^nd hand smoking, designed to spread awareness to their fellow students and the wider public about effects of 2^nd hand smoke in China, and to advocate the banning of smoking in public spaces. The students plan to present a sample poster they will distribute around the school will helpful information and statistics on the issue.

The Summit will bring together a set of students who, though diverse in culture and nationality, all share a common goal of saving the environment. Roots & Shoots is looking forward with great excitement to hear about their work.

Roots & Shoots is an international hands-on environmental and humanitarian education program that is about making positive change happen – for the environment, for animals and for our communities. Started in 1991 by Dr. Jane Goodall and a group of Tanzanian students who wanted to make a difference in their community, R&S is now a growing global program based on the principle that everyone has the ability to bring about change. For more information, visit our website www.genyuya.org.cn/en/

Photo: Courtesy of Jane Goodall Foundation