Chennai: A school is bringing children close to nature, by adopting a pond. This adoption process of the Neelankarai Dhobi pond, by My School, Palavakkam, was recently inaugurated by Member of Parliament, Thamizhachi Thangapandian.
According to sources, the agenda of the year-long project, is to clean the waterbody and surrounding areas, run campaigns to create social awareness in the locality and plant more trees.
Once a week, students, teachers and volunteers will be coming together for cleaning purposes.
“We have a programme named Social Empowerment through Value Education and Action (SEVA). In this, every year we take up a project and work on it. In the past, we focused on waste segregation, cleanliness and road safety,” said Radhika, principal of the school.
“This initiative is getting an overwhelming response. We see a lot of changes. Many residents here were dumping waste into the pond and now, after children created awareness regarding this, the same people are pitching in to help with the cleaning work,” she added.
“At a time when the city is battling a water crisis, we wanted our students to learn and understand the importance of preserving water-bodies and mechanisms such as rainwater harvesting. When we discussed the idea with parents, they too expressed their interest,” she noted.
It is a free programme that encourages community groups, neighbours and local businesses to get involved. The students are helped by an NGO called Communitree, and have received permission from the civic body, to adopt the pond, she said.
Those interested to volunteer, can contact 9952052926