Another wonderful Academy day in Kathima!

52 students from 06 schools attended the Academy in the Government Primary School, Bengali Colony, Pakariya, Khatima, India.

This Academy was made possible with the dedicative commitment of Plant-for-the-Planet, Government Primary School Bengali colony and YCSG members. The event was free of charge for all the attending children, who were aged 10-14. Special thanks goes to Plant-for-the-Planet Academy staff Adelya for helping us throughout the preparation and Priyanka Chand, Harshdev Punera & Rohit Bisht for all their hard work and efforts to make this Academy successful.  We would also like to thank Mr Arjun Yadav, Mr. Mohan Pathak and Mrs. Sunita Samant for helping us contact all schools and for providing us venue and all other basic facilities.

After welcoming and registering the children their attention turned to the presentation "Now we children save the world!" which was given by Plant-for-the-Planet Coordinator Dharmendra Kapri.  The presentation covered topics like: Introduction of Plant-for-the-Planet, sources of CO2, greenhouse effect, global warming, photosynthesis, climate change, climate crisis and climate justice. After the presentation, the attending children had the opportunity to clear their doubts through a question and answer session.

After a short break, the kids were divided into six groups to learn about global distribution and justice in the World Game. The children distributed playing figures, candy and balloons on the world maps laid out on the floor 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 the process. The children were first asked to distribute the balloons, candy and tokens as per as their knowledge and later on corrected by the moderator wherever needed. Eventually, the CO2 emissions and wealth were distributed fairly – everyone has equal rights

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 Harshdev Punera.

The children then broke for lunch and were able to relax a little and to discuss the topics covered so far with each other. 

After lunch was over, the afternoon kicked off with the Short Introductive videos on Plant-for-the-Planet and How Plant-for-the-Planet Plant trees in Mexico.

Rested, and feeling energized, we relocated to the schoolyard to plant our own trees! Before the planting commenced, the children listened intently to the advice of the Eco club in charge Mr. Jitesh Nayal. He explained how and when to plant trees, and also showed how to care for them to make sure they survive. In total they planted 8 trees 40 minutes with the assistance of the Eco Club Members and NSS members.

After a short break it was back to the program. The children started the "World Café" module. The children worked on the following questions as at four stations 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, later they were asked to present their thoughts and future plans in front of other students and teachers.

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

After a long, fruitful, and enjoyable day, all 52 participants received their certificates from Mrs. Priyanka Chand and Mr. Dharmendra Kapri, which recognized them as a Climate Justice Ambassador.  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 Tree-by-Tree, and of course the Plant-for-the-Planet T-shirt they collected at the start of the day.

The organizing team of Plant-for-the-Planet Academy Pakariya (Khatima) would like to thank all those involved for their help and support to make this academy possible.

All pictures taken that day can be downloaded here.

If you want to become a Climate Justice Ambassador yourself go sign up here.