Mumbai kids to recycle paper for poor….Shabana Ansari
This summer, thousands of school children across the city will spend their vacations doing their bit for the environment.
A recycling campaign called ‘The Grand Banyan Project’ by Mumbai-based NGO, I Love My Mother Earth, has roped in 25,000 children from six city schools to collect waste paper from their schools, housing societies and corporate bodies. The children will be helped by a collection agency to transport the waste paper collected to the recycling plant.
The paper will then be recycled, converted into notebooks and donated to under privileged children across India. One notebook of recycled paper can be made from 2.5 kilos of waste paper.
“Our aim is to cover more than a million homes and offices in one day,” says filmmaker Sanjay Srinivas, who started the NGO after witnessing the melting glaciers in the Everest and in Kashmir while shooting for his film, God Lives in the Himalayas.
The campaign aims to teach the youth how to share existing resources and live in harmony with nature. “We are hoping that this long-term initiative will inspire an entire generation to work towards conserving the environment every single day of their lives,” says Srinivas who plans on involving more children in the project. Over the summer, the NGO will be reaching out to nearly three million children from 3000 schools across 50 cities and towns in India. The kids will not only contribute time and resources to the campaign but will also convince others to join the movement.
The campaign will be held in Mumbai on April 17 and in Thane and Navi Mumbai on April 24. The participating schools include RN Podar School, Santacruz; Gopi Birla Memorial School, Walkeshwar; Bombay Cambridge Gurukul in Andheri, Malad and Borivli; Our Lady of Perpetual Succour School, Chembur; Sulochanadevi Singhania School, Thane and Delhi Public School, Nerul.
Besides kids, the NGO has also reached out to corporates. “Business and corporate houses who donate more than 10,000 kilos of waste paper will be receiving the equivalent amount of recycled notebooks which they can directly distribute amongst the poor,” added Srinivas.