Skardu, in Gilgit-Baltistan, sits in Pakistan's Karakoram mountains among some of the largest glaciers outside the polar regions. Communities here already live with glacier melt, floods and a fast-growing waste problem from tourism and plastics. Yet schools have almost no practical climate education: climate change appears, if at all, as a paragraph in a textbook, and teachers receive no training in how to teach it.
GreenClassrooms is an Act4Food Pakistan initiative, delivered with GAIN Pakistan. I grew up in Skardu, and as an Act4Food youth leader I designed and led the project, which began as my leadership project in the Atlas Corps Virtual Leadership Institute. Teachers are the most trusted and lasting presence in a child's education, so we decided to start with them. The aim is simple: give teachers the skills and tools to turn climate action into a regular classroom habit, using materials available locally.
GreenClassrooms runs as a training-of-trainers programme. Teachers from government and private schools in Skardu attend a practical workshop where they learn, by doing, how to run lessons on waste separation, recycling and composting, and how to connect these to local climate issues such as glacier melt and flooding.
Each teacher leaves with a toolkit: lesson guides, checklists, simple activity plans and classroom materials. Back at school, teachers are supported to run short, regular sessions in which students sort classroom waste, start small compost projects and discuss what they see changing in their own valleys. The approach needs no technology and very little money, so it works in schools with limited resources.
The Act4Food project team organises the training, produces the materials and follows up with teachers.
Our first practical teacher workshop took place in Skardu, bringing together 50 teachers from local schools. GreenClassrooms received a Creativity in Schools Award (GBP 2,000) from the Global Institute of Creative Thinking in 2024, and a Global Changemakers project grant in 2025. The funder accepted our final report and noted the training-of-trainers programme, the distribution of educational toolkits and the involvement of educators from diverse backgrounds. The project was also covered by Skardu TV.
So far GreenClassrooms operates in Skardu. We are now working to follow up with the first group of teachers, strengthen our evidence of classroom change, and extend the programme to more schools in Gilgit-Baltistan.
The model is easy to adapt. Start with a small group of motivated teachers and run a hands-on workshop built around a few simple, repeatable activities: sorting classroom waste, a compost corner and a short discussion of local environmental change. Give each teacher a printed toolkit in the local language, and agree on a simple routine, such as one short session each week. Follow up after a few weeks to share what worked. We are happy to share our training outline and toolkit materials. Contact the project lead through LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/guleakbar) or email hasnainakber9@gmail.com.
