OUTREACH

In the mid-1980s, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) established OUTREACH.  Its mission was to help educators and communicators in Africa, Asia and Latin America address the need for practical learning materials on environment and health issues.  OUTREACH began by helping local groups produce children’s illustrated environmental and health magazines.  Free comic magazines were distributed to primary schools. They supplemented primary school curricula.  OUTREACH helped the magazine publishers find start-up funding,  OUTREACH also supplied copyright-free information packs.  The content of these packs could be adapted for use in the comics. OUTREACH helped initiate and support children’s comic magazines in many parts of the world, including Kenya, Zimbabwe, Thailand, Indonesia and Bolivia.

For over 20 years, OUTREACH produced learning materials on various environment and health topics, such as soils, water, AIDS, biodiversity, appropriate technology, waste and recycling.  Some of the publications were translated into Spanish, Portuguese, French, Arabic and Chinese.  Magazine publishers were not the only groups to receive OUTREACH information packs.  Newspaper journalists, radio broadcasters, community workers, NGO representatives, teacher trainers, curriculum developers and others who formed the OUTREACH Network received these publications by mail. Network participants used and adapted the materials for their own educational and development projects.