Students in India become Ambassadors

On September, the 19th 2019, 54 students from six schools attended the Academy in Government Model Junior High School, Sarasadia, India.

After a brief welcome and registration process, the children’s full attention turned to the presentation "Now we children save the world!” which was given by the Program Coordinators Dharmendra Kapri and Rohit Bisht.  The presentation was about Plant-for-the-Planet itself, sources of CO2, the greenhouse effect, global warming, photosynthesis, the climate crisis and global justice. These topics were explained in a very simple language and easy way. After the presentation, the children had the opportunity to clear their doubts through an interactive Q&A session.

After a short break, the children were divided into six groups to learn about global distribution and justice in the World Game. The children respectively distributed playing figures, candy and balloons on world maps as symbols of the world’s population, wealth and CO2 emissions.  Each group had one moderator from our academy team to help them understand the rules and process.

Then, the children formed six public speaking groups and prepared and presented short passages from the opening presentation that they had seen at the start of the day. They gave each other tips on how to improve their presentations in the future and a short session on how to give a good presentation was conducted by Priyanka Chand and Dharmendra Kapri.

The children then broke for lunch and were able to relax a little and discuss the topics covered so far.  After lunch, the afternoon kicked off with the short introductive videos on Plant-for-the-Planet and the planting location in Mexico, as the children were very curious about these topics during the presentation session.

Rested, and feeling energized, the children relocated to the schoolyard to plant their own trees! Before the planting commenced, the children listened intently to the advice of the Eco club in charge Mr. Gokulanand Bhatt. He explained how and when to plant trees, and also showed the children how to take care for them to make sure they survive. In total they planted 15 trees (Azadirachta indica, Cassia fistula, Magnifera Indica, Indian Gooseberry, Psidium guajava) in just 60 minutes with the assistance of the Eco Club Members and YCSG members.

After a short break, the program went on. The children started the World Café module. They worked on the following questions  "How do we ensure that the media reports about us?", "How do we motivate the adults?", "How do we motivate friends and classmates?" and "How do we organize a planting party?"

After everyone had the opportunity to write down their thoughts to each question, the children were asked to present their thoughts and future plans in front of other students and teachers.

After the World Café, some children were asked to give a shortened version of the morning presentation, their future plans and the outcomes of the school groups and group discussions.

After a long, fruitful, and enjoyable day, all 54 participants received their certificates from Mrs. Kusum Pandey and Miss Priyanka Chand, which recognized them as a Climate Justice Ambassadors.  An interesting day had come to an end. Apart from the experience and newly found knowledge, all new Ambassadors took with them a copy of the Tree-by-Tree book, and of course the Plant-for-the-Planet T-shirt.

The Academy was made possible with the dedicative commitment of Govt. Model Junior High School Sarasadia and TGIC eco club members. The event was free of charge for all the attending children, who were aged from 10-14. Special Thanks go to Plant-for-the-Planet academy staff Adelya for helping us throughout the academy preparation and Harshdev Punera, Rohit Bisht and Priyanka Chand for all their hard work and efforts to make this academy successful.  We would also like to thank Mr Narendra Rautela and Mrs. Kusum Pandey for helping us contact all schools and for providing us venue and other basic facilities for the academy. Not to be forgotten are the many helpers and supporters, without whom the implementation of the Academy, venue, technology, Tree-planting event, and much more would not have been possible.

We kept some memories of the day in this photo gallery.

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