Felix, Sudeep and Yugratna took Plant-for-the-Planet to Andhra Pradesh and Kerala

Plant-for-the-Planet climate justice Ambassadors and board members – Yugratna, Sudeep and Felix – took Plant-for-the-Planet to the south part of India and organised two academies in two different states. Along with the Academies, they also had opportunity to witness some effective ecological projects in south India and interact with a lot of people working in those areas.

The first academy took place on 10th September, 2015 at High School for Inclusive Education, Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh. It was done in collaboration with NGO Fundación Vicente Ferrer (FVF) and its Rural Development Trust (RDT). The academy witnessed a very diverse participation including students from remote areas as well. The diverse nature of participants showed a very active response in the brainstorming sessions of “World Cafe” and “World Game”. Despite the language barriers and heavy rains in between, the students came up with remarkable school action plans. As speakers, children now can spread the message of Climate Justice and underline the importance of environment protection on both the local and global level.

Since 45 years, the Fundación Vicente Ferrer (FVF) and its Rural Development Trust (RDT) has been successfully working in the field of development cooperation in Andhra Pradesh and reaches more than 3000 local communities. Among others FVF is promoting education and ecology campaigns. The Plant-for-the-Planet Academies became part of the ecology and education programme of the Fundación Vicente Ferrer.

Sudeep, Yugratna and Felix also had a chance to visit some of their projects in schools, hospitals, bunds and hills. In one of their school – DGP High School – every student has one tree assigned to her name. They take care of it and then pass it on to their juniors once they graduate. At High School for Inclusive Education, they learned how Braille script has revolutionized education for visually impaired people.

The second Academy took place on 12th September, 2015 in Mararikulam, Alleppuzha, Kerala in collaboration with the NGO SAMHATHI. SAMHATHI is a project partner of DESWOS (German Development Assistance Association for Social Housing). Fr. Antony Jacob Paliath (project coordinator SAMHATHI) also attended the academy. In total 83 children from 7 schools attended the academy. One of the remarkable things about this academy was that number of girls outdid the number of boys and the next amazing thing was that all participants took back a lot of saplings to plant at their home and school and of course our tree by tree book and their climate justice ambassador certificate.

More pictures can be found on flickr: Anantapur and Alleppuzha