The River Nile School in North Melbourne has won the Education category in this year’s Victorian Premier’s Sustainability Awards for its Sustainability Across VCAL Curriculum program.
The school offers programs delivering the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) curriculum to re-engage refugee and asylum seeker school-aged young women aged 15-22 who may have experienced disrupted schooling, are newly arrived to Australia, or find a flexible learning environment that is best suited their needs.
Sustainability was a key theme throughout 2018. Students learnt about the topic in depth, culminating in two student-led projects, a Sustainability Expo and a Sustainability Market.
At the annual Victorian Premier’s Sustainability Awards ceremony in Melbourne, Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, the Hon. Lily D’Ambrosio presented Enable Social Enterprises as winner of the Premier’s Recognition Award for their work training and employing disadvantaged people in a thriving e-waste business.
The Premier’s Regional Recognition Award was presented to the Finnigan family from Kia Ora property in Warrnambool, a wool producing family farm that runs an Ethical, Sustainable, Profitable program right across its site and operations.
Sustainability Victoria’s interim Chief Executive, Carl Muller, said the awards showed how management of environmental issues was of growing importance for all Victorians – regardless of age, location or what they do.
“Each year, the Premier’s Sustainability Awards continue to discover Victoria’s best and most inspiring Victorian individuals, organisations and businesses who are developing and implementing new sustainable practices,” he said.
“Congratulations to all of this year’s winners. Your contributions will have positive long-term benefits for us all.”