2. The problem Our school is in the heart of the city. We have less plants and trees in our school campus and the neighborhood. We wanted to make the area greener. Planting more trees and plants purifies the air, gives shade and home to many birds and animals and makes the place beautiful. This would be a wonderful contribution to Mother Nature.
3. WHAT COULD BE DONE? We thought of getting a number of plants and tree saplings from a near by nursery and plant them in our campus and neighborhood. Spread the message and make people aware of the necessity of more plants and trees. Make sure that the saplings planted are taken care of well.
4. We had to buy 40-50 plant/tree saplings, the pots, soil. We convinced our school authorities of the need. The school agreed to give us the soil and pots.
5. OUR PLAN We came up with an idea- to run a food court in our unit. The food court would have different varieties of snacks, drinks and traditional food stuffs. To ensure success we advertised for days. Most of the students and teachers agreed that they would have their breakfast at our food court on the day.
6. We decided to make a good profit on the food stuffs sold and make use of it towards getting the plants and maintaining them. Our plan was like this: Stage one: get plants for school campus Stage two: plants for our neighborhood Stage three: plants for some schools/orphanage/old age homes in city.
7. We planned a tree-buddy for each sapling planted. That is, a student will be responsible for taking care of the plant till he leaves the school. We believe that trees also have emotions. The friend for the tree is supposed to watch his tree grow, make sure that its needs are met with. This way a new sense of attachment develops between the tree and the student.
8. In the next stages, the project would be extended to neighborhood where volunteers would be given a chance to be a tree-buddy. In the stage three students/elderly people would become the tree-buddies. Thus, the tree-buddies learn to contribute for the planet. The project would bring in like minded people who believe that every form of life on the planet is interconnected.
9. IMPLEMENTATION Stage one was implemented between Oct 7-14. The food court was arranged and it was a big success. The profit was used to get the saplings. We identified 36 volunteers who wished to become tree-buddies. The saplings, pots and soil was brought. The planting was done on Oct.9th.
10. The tree-buddies are working with enthusiasm to make sure that the saplings are taken care of. Our stage two is expected to be done in the month of November. Other classes of our unit are coming up with ideas of organizing food courts, tuck shops, fun-fairs etc to arrange money for the next stage. We are also looking for volunteers outside the school who would like to be tree-buddies.
25. The real joy and happiness in our life comes when we make others happy. A simple initiative to make the planet better by: Dhyey , Darshit, Umang(6E), Divyang, Sujaan (8E).
