All our projects follow medium and long-term objectives, defined with local partners in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Freepackers offers programmes that support and contribute to their achievement, in keeping with the advice given by this international structure.
In 2015, 193 states adopted the Sustainable Development Goals. By participating in their implementation, the signatory states are trying to combat poverty, inequality and climate change.
These objectives were therefore adopted in 2015 at the Paris Climate Change Conference, also known as COP21. This conference focuses on highlighting the challenges and issues in order to combine human prosperity with the protection of the planet.
17 goals are highlighted and adopted as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Each goal is a continuation of the goals before. the Millennium Development Goals, set in 2000. In 2015, the MDGs came to an end: a great success, with a 50% reduction in extreme poverty worldwide. The new 2030 targets were set in 2015 to build on this success.
However, the SDGs go further: they want to improve the lives of everyone, everywhere, and create a better world for future generations. Living well while leaving a better world for our successors is the essence of sustainable development.
Freepackers contributes to the achievement of the SDGs in all of its projects, contributing to the goal of conserving aquatic life as well as terrestrial life, helping communities and providing access to healthcare for all, and much more.
The United Nations, through this MDG, aims to end hunger and malnutrition in all its forms within 10 years.
We offer various projects, including internships, to help people suffering from malnutrition. Participants' main missions of the are around awareness raising, as well as the education of local youth. We promote the benefits and importance of eating well, and help prepare balanced meals for the local communities.
The community project in Fiji aims to reduce malnutrition in the Dawasamu district. Malnutrition is widespread in Fiji and is a real scourge in the region. Ironically, these islands are full of nutritious fruits, vegetables and root crops. During this mission, various workshops are held to raise awareness of the value of nutrition in the community. More and more locals are coming to attend these workshops, which are organised during the missions, showing the positive impact of the projects in Fiji, in line with the goal of zero hunger. For example, the district nurse reported that between February and October 2018, there was a real decrease in malnutrition in children under five.
Education is a key aspect of achieving the UN's sustainable development goals. To have access to quality education is to improve one's future and to improve one's chances of empowerment in the future.
Freepackers provides access to a large number of projects in education, working with communities in need of educational support. Many of the assignments also focus on women's empowerment programmes, such as the one offered in Cape Town. Local women strive to develop their computer skills so that they can get a stable job. Furthermore, we have set up such a programme with the host organisation. We are continually developing our lessons to give them the best possible empowerment.
Achieving this goal means eradicating laws and norms as well as discriminatory practices, which are still prelavent in our society. It also means ensuring equal opportunities for women and men, a task that various Freepackers programmes are working on.
All women's empowerment and even education programmes address not only Goal 4 but also Goal 5. Helping local women in South Africa to develop their computer skills in order to find employment more easily helps to eradicate gender inequality. Indeed, by giving women the skills they need to compete in the labour market, and by instilling a new sense of confidence in them, we are respecting and contributing to the achievement of this goal.
Many communities do not have reliable and permanent access to clean water, especially in rural areas. Therefore, we seek to mitigate these risks in several of Freepackers' projects.
After the 2004 tsunami, there were concerns that the ecosystem of the Curieuse Marine National Park (CMNP) in the Seychelles was in serious decline. To investigate these concerns, our partner joined forces with the Seychelles National Park Authority (SNPA) to monitor the forest in 2013. Water services to society are provided by ecosystems. Ensuring the health of our mangrove forest is our way of supporting global efforts to improve water quality. We therefore propose this forest monitoring mission on Freepackers as part of our environmental and marine conservation programmes in the Seychelles.
In line with this objective of sustainable development, we seek to conserve the oceans, seas and marine resources in various projects. This is particularly the case with all the marine conservation programmes, such as in Mexico, Costa Rica and Fiji. By training volunteers, Freepackers contributes to the protection of marine ecosystems, oceans and their inhabitants.
In practical terms, different bases strive to make ethical environmental choices, some of which include recycling stations, solar panels, compostable toilets, or the burning of single-use plastics. Most of our bases also organise beach clean-ups where they can. Many of our bases are located in coastal villages, and focus on community development, wildlife conservation, or marine conservation, so everyone is helping to clean up our oceans.
This includes the preservation and restoration of different terrestrial ecosystems. Many projects contribute to the protection of different species, to help wildlife against the various threats and challenges it faces. This is indeed the case in the programme located in Limpopo, South Africa. Here, staff and participants support local organisations in collecting data and implementing various conservation projects. In this section, we present research conducted in Limpopo on the predation habits of resident cheetahs.
We are helping to build a global partnership for sustainable development by working directly with various local associations in communities. Indeed, as recognised by the United Nations, it is essential to partner and work side-by-side. Freepackers embodies this in everything we do and undertake, forming unique and collaborative relationships with each of the communities in which we operate.
