To celebrate World Environment Day in my state I organized an Environmental Academy in rural area of Uttarakhand. Altogether 106 students from 13 schools attended the academy in Government Upper Primary School, Islamnagar, Uttarakhand, India.

 

 Welcome, Presentation and Q&A -

 

After a brief welcome and registration process the full attention of the children turned to the presentation "Now we children save the world!", which was given by Plant-for-the-Planet Coordinator Dharmendra Kapri.  The presentation covered: Introduction of Plant-for-the-Planet, sources of CO2,green house effect, global warming, photosynthesis,  climate change, climate crisis and climate justice . These topics were explained in a very simple language and easy way. After the presentation, children had the opportunity to clear their doubts through an interactive and question and answer session.

 

 Break and World Game-

 

After a short break, the children were divided into 8 groups to learn about global distribution and justice in the World Game. The children distributed playing figures, candy and balloons on the world maps laid out on the floor as symbols of the world’s population, wealth and CO2 emissions respectively.  Each group had one Moderator from our academy team to help them understand the rules and the process. The children were first asked to distribute the balloons, candy and tokens as per as their knowledge and later on corrected by the moderator wherever needed. Eventually, the CO2 emissions and wealth were distributed fairly - everyone has equal rights.

 

Public-speaking training

 

Then the children formed 8 public speaking groups and prepared and presented short passages from the opening presentation that they had seen at the start of the day. They gave each other tips on how to improve their presentations in the future and a short session on How to Give a Good Presentation was conducted by Miss Preeti Yadav and Mr. Rohit Bisht.

 

 Session on Tunza Eco-Generation-

I also conducted a session on Tunza Eco-generation and promoted our TEG platform among the Students and gave them TEG leaflets, pens, post-its etc and reminded them to look at the TEG website to see wonderful work carried on by all of us.

 

Lunch break und Film-

 

 The children then broke for lunch and were able to relax a little and to discuss the topics covered so far with each other. 

 

After lunch was over, the afternoon kicked off with the Short Introductive videos on Plant-for-the-Planet and How Plant-for-the-Planet Plant trees in Mexico as children during the presentation session were very curious to know more about the plant-for-the-planet and how we plant trees all over the world.

 Planting party

 

 Rested, and feeling energized, the children relocated to the schoolyard to plant their own trees! Before the planting commenced, the children listened intently to the advice of the Eco club in charge Mr. Mukesh Kumar. He explained how and when to plant trees, and also showed the children how to care for them to make sure they survive. In total they planted 15 trees (Azadirachta indica, Cassia fistula, Magnifera Indica, Indian Gooseberry, Psidium guajava) in just 45 minutes with the assistance of the Eco Club Members and YCSG members.

 

 School groups and the World Café

 

After a short break it was back to the program. The children started the "World Café" module. The children worked on the following questions as at four stations questions: "How do we ensure that the media reports about us?", "How do we motivate the adults?", "How do we motivate friends and classmates?" and "How do we organize a planting party?"

 

After everyone had the opportunity to write down their thoughts to each question, children were asked to present their thoughts and future plans in front of other students and teachers.

 

 Evening Presentation

 

After the World Café children were asked to give shortened version of morning presentations, their future plans and outcomes of the school groups and group discussions.

 

Graduation

 

After a long, fruitful, and enjoyable day, all 106 participants received their certificates from Mrs. Baijanti Rawat, which recognized them as a Climate Justice Ambassador.  An interesting day had come to an end. Apart from the experience and newly found knowledge, all new Ambassadors took with them a copy of Tree-by-Tree, and of course the Plant-for-the-Planet T-shirt they collected at the start of the day.