substantial gain of environmental knowledge for Ugandan participants

Ugandan participants, in contrast, whose social context provided less natural exposure to environment information than in Germany, largely gained their relatively high pre-existing level of environmental knowledge from their enrolment in related fields of study. These youth expressed a sense of privilege at having had access to the knowledge provided through YLEC and a motivation to share this knowledge with others: "…because we have knowledge, because the people of YLEC have given us knowledge, if we just sit on it, it would be nothing, it would be like they have wasted their time and ours, like forget it! Cause they give [us] knowledge, [we] should have the chance to give people the wealth of that knowledge. So if we have that knowledge, and we can’t use it maximally, it means we are doomed!" (UGD015) Another Ugandan participant expressed how the knowledge she learned through YLEC was meaningful and gave her hope: “the course enlightened me. It really gave me hope…the course, [its] presenters, the reports, the presentations, the facilitators, and the ideas among the students…[I] realized ‘this was worth it’” (UGD012).