At the end of April, the Baksara school was delighted to welcome the SwitchON foundation, which has been working in the environmental field since 2008. More specifically, it works on access to clean energy and supports a number of projects in sustainable agriculture, vocational training and education.
At HSP’s initiative, representatives came to Baksara to raise awareness and educate children from all the HSP centers in Howrah about waste management.
This is a very important subject, particularly here, where waste is left in the streets and waterways. We need to raise awareness and change attitudes from an early age in order to combat this scourge and get children to adopt responsible behavior. To this end, SwitchON has shown a film to children on the damage that waste causes to the planet and the importance of disposing of it in appropriate places.
Following the film, a group activity was proposed by the foundation. The children had to fill plastic bottles with paper or plastic. The aim was for the children to fit all the waste into the bottles provided.
The aim of this activity was to show them that a simple plastic bottle can be used as a rubbish bin, and quite effectively at that, since with a one-liter bottle it is possible to pile up a fairly large quantity of rubbish (by tamping it down a little with a stick, for example).
Awareness-raising must continue, and the teachers are working on this, but let’s hope that this experience has already given the children the desire to continue along this path.
