In ?Green Brigade? we always think that any small initiative has a potential to cross any barrier in any day and will be instrumental in creating a positive environment around us. Recently we came across one such initiative by an individual in UAE and wish to share with all of you...

Mr. Venkatraman is a Chartered Accountant by profession and has initiated the Pencil collection drive which is really unique with a dual purpose of Save the earth and is also tool of education which a deserving student who need the most.

Pencils, erasers. rulers, crayons, unused blank sheets from used notebooks, toys etc are normally available in our household in excess and normally we don't pay much attention to these. After sometime, we start using the fresh/new ones and the used items go to trash bin and finally to landfill. But at the same time, there are many children in the world who are really struggling to get these to continue their study....

Each child requires 3 pencils per term and each class require 3 sets of colour pencils but we use/buy much more than the same in the developed/wealthy countries. Whenever there is a ?back to school? promotion, we buy all the stationery inspite of having pencils, color pencils, school bags?which normally not used/half used and we throw those after some time. But if we try to re-use them it can create a positive impact in our society.

For an example, now Mr. Venkat collects used pencils, erasers, school bags, uniforms, stationary etc from various schools in UAE and distribute to the needy and poor children in India through various NGOs. ?Shikshayatan? in Thiruvaroor district ,Tamil Nadu, India and other NGOs distribute  pencils on behalf of www.education4all.info in the district schools to 4000+ children every term .

He also feels that any items before discarding from the house and before it goes to landfill, should be thought twice how this can be re-used by some. This way we can reduce the landfill by making some contribution towards the society as well. He also consider that morally it is our social responsibility also as we fall under the 1% people who are privileged but 99% of the population are under privileged.

He firmly believes that this is an "of the youth for the youth and by the youth" programme and helps to work towards saving the earth and helping the underprivileged village children.

It was our privilege to have a face to face session with him to understand more of this motivated person who is an inspiration to many. the details of the interview will be available in our next newsletter "Green Vision" and the glimpses of the interview is also available at the following link (youtube):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1c7vJNyihC0&feature=youtu.be