Sripur Bichwa starts planting

81 students from 9 schools attended the Academy in Nav Chetna Public School, Sripur Bichwa, India.

This Academy was made possible with the dedicative commitment of the Plant-for-the-Planet Foundation, Nav Chetna Public School and TGIC Eco Club. The event was free of charge for all the attending children, who were aged 9-14.

Special thanks goes to Plant-for-the-Planet academy-staff Adelya for helping us throughout the Academy preparation and to Rohit Bisht, Harshdev Punera and Priyanka Chand for all their hard work and efforts to make this Academy successful. We would also like to thank Miss Priyanka Pathak, Mr. Mohan Digari and Mr. Narendra Rautela 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.

After a brief welcome the full attention of the children 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: an introduction of Plant-for-the-Planet, sources of CO2, greenhouse effect, global warming, photosynthesis, climate change, climate crisis, Plant-for-the-Planet and global justice. After the presentation the children had the opportunity to clear their doubts through an interactive and question and answer session.

After a short break, the children were divided into 6 groups to learn about global distribution and justice in the so called “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 kids 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

After the World Game the children formed 6 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 Miss Priyanka Chand and Harshdev Punera.

We 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 short introductive videos on Plant-for-the-Planet and how Plant-for-the-Planet plants trees in Mexico as children during the presentation session were very curious to know more about this topics.

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. Anuj Sisodiya. He explained how and when to plant trees, and also showed the children how to care for their trees to make sure they survive. In total they planted 10 trees in just 50 minutes with the assistance of the Eco Club Members and YCSG members.

Then we went back to the program. Our future Ambassadors started the "World Café" module. The children worked on the following questions as at four stations: "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 the kids were asked to give shortened versions of morning presentations, their future plans and outcomes of the school groups and group discussions.

After a long, fruitful, and enjoyable day, all 81 participants received their certificates from Miss Priyanka Chand, 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 a copy of Tree-by-Tree, and of course the Plant-for-the-Planet T-shirt with them.

The organizing team of Plant-for-the-Planet academy Sripur Bichwa would like to thank all those involved for their help and support to make this academy possible.