Chennai: Every year, World Environment Day is observed on 5 June. In a drive to revive natural resources and promote environment-friendly activities, neighbourhood-based NGO Vaanavil conducts several workshops on waste segregation and teaches children on how to recycle waste products.
Talking about their classes, Geetha Jawahar, one of the members of this NGO that is located at Madanandapuram, says, “Just like how important it is to teach kids to use resources effectively, so is education on waste segregation.”
In their recently held workshop, activities such as puppet show, how to make best use of old t-shirts, doormats and costars, and doll making with newspapers were conducted.
Lakshmi, another member of this NGO, says, “I feel educating children about this will have better impact than teaching elders. Many parents told us that their children went back home and taught them about waste segregation. What we teach them at this age will be registered into their minds, and in the future, they will follow it effectively and take initiatives to keep our environment clean.”
THEY LEARN BETTER HERE
One of the parents whose kid participated in the workshop, says, “I think this environment is better for the kids to learn things better. More than parents teaching them how to reuse waste, children here learn it with much interest along with their friends.”
Geetha Jawahar can be contacted at 95000 23472.
| Lakshmi suggests some effective ways to re-use waste |
| * Take your own bags for shopping * Plastic bottles can be used for planting, decorations, etc * Glass jars can be used as pantry items, desk organizers or bathroom containers * Make useful woven baskets and trays out of magazines and newspapers * Convert old towels into washable cleaning rags * Re-purpose broken furniture or disassemble and reuse the wood |