24 trees planted in just 60 minutes! – Tharu Government Inter College takes action

On the 29th of July a second academy took place in Khatima, just 9 days after the celebration of the first one. A total of 79 children from 10 different schools attended this second academy. The event was free-of-charge for all the attending children, aged from 8 to 14.

The academy begun with a brief welcome and registration progress. Then the full attention of the children turned to the presentation “Now we children save the world!” given by Dharmendra Kapri. Complex topics, such as sources of CO2, global warming, photosynthesis, the climate crisis and global justice were presented in a suitable way for children. After the presentation, the participants had the chance to clarify their questions.

For the following part the children were divided into small groups, to learn about global distribution and global justice in the so called “World Game”. The children distributed tokens, candy and balloons among the continents displayed on the world map.

The three playing figures symbolize the world’s population, wealth and CO2 emissions respectively. After seeing the real life distribution of these resources, all children agreed that the distribution was uneven and unjust: although only 0.5 percent of the population live in North America, they possess almost 30 percent of the world income and emit 20 percent of CO2 emissions.In order to visualize how a fair distribution of population, wealth and CO2 emissions would look like, the children redistributed the sweets and balloons. In order to take action and speak up for their future, the children had the chance to practice their public speaking skills. They prepared and presented short passages from the opening presentation they had listened to in the morning. They gave each other feedback on how to improve their presentations in the future.

After a short lunch break, the children had the opportunity to take action for their future right away: They went to plant trees! In addition, they received information on how to plant trees, when to plant them and how to take care of them. In return, the participants were able to show off their newly gained knowledge about the role and importance of trees. In total they planted 24 trees in just 60 minutes. The children finished the planting event with a magnificent Stop Talking, Start Planting battle cry!

Back to in Tharu Government Inter College a small group practiced the final presentation for the evening event and the rest of the children started the World Café. During this activity the participants were collecting ideas to the questions how to get the attention of the media, how to motivate adults, friends and classmates and how to organize a planting party. Afterwards the children gathered in their school groups and planned their own project, which they would want to implement after the academy.
 

At the end of the day, family, friends and guests arrived for the evening event. The children proudly presented the prepared presentation and their ideas from the World Café. An interesting day had come to an end. Apart from the experience and newly found knowledge, all participants were appointed as Ambassadors for Climate Justice and received a certificate, a Plant-for-the-Planet T-shirt and the book ‘Tree-by-Tree’.  Organizers and guests were very impressed by the performance of the children.

For further pictures, clik on this link! And if you would also like to become an ambassador, you can do it through this site!

Special thanks goes to the Plant-for-the-Planet Program Coordinator Adelya and Rohit Bisht, also to teacher Mr. Narendra Rautela  (Air NCC Officer and International Hidden Eco Hero recipient) and  Mr. Santosh Kumar (Head Teacher of TGIC).Huge thanks to all the assistants around the venue, technology, food and tree planting event. Without their support the academy would not have been possible.