CMCA Mumbai

INSPIRATION 2010 Event Pictures

2010-08-13T20:47:00.000-07:00

UTSAV 2010 ..pictures for view

2010-02-08T20:49:00.001-08:00

I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.
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UTSAV report

2010-02-08T07:31:00.000-08:00

CMCA’s Annual Exhibition – “Utsav 2010”

CMCA Mumbai celebrated it’s 5th Annual exhibition “Utsav 2010” on Saturday, 23rd January 2010, at Balkan ji bari, Juhu.

The ATS Chief, Maharashtra, Mr. KP Raghuvanshi was our chief guest.

The programme was inaugurated by the chief guest with the lighting of the lamp followed by the hoisting of the CMCA Flag. CMCA’s “Action Heroes” were felicitated for their exemplary acts of active citizenship and they unfurled the 4th pillar of Democracy i.e. “Active Citizenship”.

The principals of the two pioneering schools, Utpal Shanghavi School and Villa Theresa High School who had welcomed CMCA in our very first year were also felicitated.

Trophies for the essay competition on “I Made a Difference” were given by our National Coordinator Ms. Vrunda Bhaskar.

The exhibition, put up by CMCA students and volunteers, was based on specific themes like Air, Water, Earth, Energy and Rights & Responsibilities. The exhibits and games helped spread the message of better practices in the conservation and management of these resources.

NGO’s involved in this field, also put up exhibits to make it a great learning experience for all.

The games, contests, prizes and food made it a fun-filled day for the children. Around 1500 students along with their teachers across the city from various schools attended Utsav 2010.

Poem about UTSAV by our volunteer

2010-02-08T07:28:00.000-08:00

CMCA UTSAV 2010Was a pleasant morning and for once it was cool,
As walked in students school by school,
Stalls readied ...banners were up,
PPPs were practiced and games set up.
Festivities began, bang on time,
Food too was devoured line by line,
Charts read and lessons learnt.
Making it worthwhile for the mid night oil burnt,
In learning and fun the students engaged
Skits and songs and antakshari wars they waged,
Colorful stalls, green, yellow, orange and blue,
There was something for each child to do...
As the day wore on and the garbage piled in the bins...
Was warmed surrounded by so many active citizens
Innovative, educational..... fun galore,
Went home feeling satiated....couldn’t ask for more.

Anjali Bose
Zonal Coordinator, CMCA Mumbai

utsav invitation

2010-01-14T04:02:00.000-08:00

Here's our Invitation for UTSAV an annual meet of all cmca clubs in mumbai!

A eye opening article by one of our student

2010-01-13T08:54:00.001-08:00

Hi all,

I just wanted to share a wonderful experience that I had with a few kids from a group called ‘Apun Ka Club’. It was a great experience. We played games together and had loads of fun. (I went along with many other friends of mine) After all the fun stuff, I heard a very shocking news. Those children (living at simla nagar) got water only for 1 hour throughout the day!! Just 1 hour in 24 hours! Now many of you all might just delete this e-mail or not read any further and mark this e-mail as junk thinking that it might be another lecture about saving water and all. But I request you to read further and see how these people struggle for water. It doesn’t make a difference to us who get water for 24 hours. But imagine them-they get water only for 1 hour throughout the day!! ….. And that’s not all…

This is their situation:

Approximately 7-8 families are expected to get water from ONE tap. Yes, that’s right. Each family has about 4-5 members. So at an average, 40 people are expected to get water form ONE tap.

Every evening one or two members of the family go to the tap at about 5:00 p.m. to collect water for the next 24 hours. After collecting this water they can collect water only the next day at the same time.

However, nowadays the water comes very irregularly. Sometimes at 7:00, sometimes at 7:30 or even at 8:00 p.m.

One of them even told me that on that Sunday, the water did not arrive till 11:30 in the night. Many of them did not even eat their food thinking that if, while they are eating, the water suddenly came, they might not get a chance to collect their share of water for the next 24 hours!

We asked them a question:

If you were standing in line, and by the time you reach the tap or even before that, the water stops coming, what do you do?

Their answer was:

We go to some other tap and fill our water. And if the water has stopped coming there also, we ask our neighbors to lend us a little water so that we can survive. And yes, they very willingly give us.

What an experience!

When we were packing up, a small girl Ganga from ‘Apun Ka Club’ came to Shitalaunty (our Art teacher who has also initiated this 'Apun Ka Club' where she works with these children every Saturday at Shantivan garden) and silently told her, “Didi, paani hi humara jeevan hai!”
So, the next time you are wasting water, just think about these people and see if you can anyhow save that water. And these aren’t the only people. There are many more that we don’t know of!

So this new year try and make a resolution to do something for our mother earth
Thank you.

SAVE WATER, SAVE THE EARTH.
I AM DOING MY BIT.
ARE YOU?

Yours lovingly,
Alomi Parikh

Poems from our young members

2009-12-14T20:39:00.000-08:00

OUR WORLD

When this world was made,  
it was so neat and clean.
Why must mankind have been so mean?  
The ponds and rivers flow so free.  
But clean again they will never see.
The sky and clouds were a sight to be seen,  
Now it is a struggle to keep them clean.
Aditya Das
VIII C HFS, Powai

Smoke, smoke going up to the sky.
Vehicles on road, make us cry
Oh! Every where pollution, pollution,
Let us all hurry to find a solution.

Factories belch so much smoke,
That makes our throat choke
Oh! Everywhere is pollution, pollution,
Let us hasten to find a solution.
Not only metros, even villages suffer,
Alas! Only in degrees it differs!
All round is pollution, pollution,
Let us not delay to find a solution.

We had better grow many more trees,
Surely then pollution hazard will decrease.

Let us not cut any more trees,
We all will breath in peace.
Ayushi Maitha, Std VII
Shri Balaji International School

NATURE CLEANLINESS

Please don’t be careless,
Have some civic awareness

Earth should be clean,
And very much green

Do not use plastic,
Then it would be fantastic

Lets start garbage seggregation
By dry & wet garbage seperation

Collecting garbage will keep earth clean,
And nature will be better like you have never seen

So let us gather
And do everything together.
Vaishnavi Jadav (VIII A)
S. M. Shetty School.

Articles by our young members

2009-12-14T20:30:00.000-08:00

Water, Why we should save it ??
Mumbai, a city that is known for newcomers, suffers from major water shortages. We use many litres of water without thinking if we really need it. The amount of water we use is enough to quench the thirst of upto7 people. Slums turn to taps, but the water is often contaminated. This leads to diseases like cholera, typhoid and Hepatitis A. Let us take a minute to think, where do we really get our water from?? If the answer to this is tanker water, you should know that you are living in an area which suffers from water shortages. The tankers get the water from sources like lakes and freshwater rivers. The people who depend on the water and lakes may not even get any water. Villages depend on ground water but it dries up and cannot be used. We need to be able to use water efficiently .to do so, we must have desalination plane to use the sea water effectively. SAVE WATER, DON”T WASTE IT.
Akankshaa ,J.B Petit

Here is a beautiful speech for saving the environment and developing India!!!
Why do you think that India is so filthy??Ha...IS this because India is illiterate,yes maybe...why not??
Cant we try making India a better country.Cant we Tranform India.....cant we make the illiterate
people of India a literate country nd y dont we stop littering our motherland.Yes surely due
to this we say dat All other international countries are liliterate,clean nd Unfilthy..
DO tou think TB is at large?yessssssss because we spit all around but in USA
why do they charge for spitting????because that is a more developed country than ours
They Charge 20 US $ for spitting nd 5o US $ for littering.........
And yes i think that we can transform INDIA....
This is why CMCA took birth in India.....
CMCA-Making A Difference.....

Here Are Some Points For Saving The Environment:

Clean or replace air filters on your air conditioning unit at least once a month.
If you have central air conditioning, do not close vents in unused rooms.
Lower the thermostat on your water heater to 120.
Wrap your water heater in an insulated blanket.
Turn down or shut off your water heater when you will be away for extended periods.
Turn off unneeded lights even when leaving a room for a short time.
Set your refrigerator temperature at 36 to 38 and your freezer at 0 to 5 .
When using an oven, minimize door opening while it is in use; it reduces oven temperature by 25 to 30 every time you open the door.
Clean the lint filter in your dryer after every load so that it uses less energy.
Unplug seldom used appliances.
Use a microwave when- ever you can instead of a conventional oven or stove.
Wash clothes with warm or cold water instead of hot.
Reverse your indoor ceiling fans for summer and winter operations as recommended.
Turn off lights, computers and other appliances when not in use.
Purchase appliances and office equipment with the Energy Star Label; old refridgerators, for example, use up to 50 more electricity than newer models.
Only use electric appliances when you need them.
Use compact fluorescent light bulbs to save money and energy.
Keep your thermostat at 68 in winter and 78 in summer.
Keep your thermostat higher in summer and lower in winter when you are away
Insulate your home as best as you can.
Install weather stripping around all doors and windows.
Shut off electrical equipment in the evening when you leave work.
Plant trees to shade your home.
Shade outside air conditioning units by trees or other means.
Replace old windows with energy efficient ones.
Use cold water instead of warm or hot water when possible.
Connect your outdoor lights to a timer.
Buy green electricity - electricity produced by low - or even zero-pollution facilities (NC Greenpower for North Carolina - www.ncgreenpower.org). In your home-reduce toxicity.
Yash Jain, HFS

Diwali is a joyful festival. Everybody buys new clothes and bursts crackers to celebrate. That was me until I knew about pollution. Most people have been quite frank by saying that they have burst crackers but they have burst a considerably less amount. Sounds like you? Looks like you're on the way to becoming a tree-hugger. Lots of children know about pollution from fire crackers but sadly, few even try to make a difference. They justify themselves by saying "One person can't make a difference, only if many peopledo something there will be a change." But how do people start changing their habits? Change starts with one person, YOU. We, the members of CMCA hope that our Diwali rally educated people and that it has helped the environment in its own way. Now perhaps, I may sound like an environmentalist, but I'm not. I am just another citizen of India, trying to make a change. If I can try you can too. Give this idea a chance and you might surprise youself by helping the Earth.
Akanksha Ashok A, J B Petit

Global warming, a sizzling hot major issue that is sending a chill down everyone’s spine. Today the Global warming is a major issue that is leading Mother Earth, closer and closer to destruction. Deforestation, depletion of the ozone layer, soil erosion and what not are the deadly effects of global warming. We must do something, so that this nightmare may be finished forever.
Ø We must plant more trees and encourage backyard and window gardening.
Ø We must minimize the use of CFCs like air conditioners and aerosol cans.
Ø We must walk short distances or use public transport. We must also encourage car pools.
And the most important , we must make others aware so that they too can take some measure.But most of the people, just don’t care. Ignorance is not the only answer. Take a step ahead so that our our future generations can follow our footsteps. Make a difference, and bad India, infact the whole world to a new direction, where problems like global warming can be handled with ease. Treat your environment like your own Kith and Kin, and trust me, Global warming will be like a long last topic in the boring books of history. Come fight with CMCA against this life threatening heat. Say no to GLOBAL WARMING.

Pearl Majithia
VII-A
Jankidevi Public School

Diwali Posters by Aashray

2009-11-12T09:30:00.000-08:00

Beach Clean up by SVKM School

2009-11-12T09:29:00.000-08:00

THE BEACH CLEAN -UP I was stunned to see the population at the beach for the clean-up. The International Coastal Clean-Up (ICCU) had organized a clean - up drive after Ganesha chaturti.
There were thousands of helping hands not only children but also teenagers & parents who grabbed their masks, gloves & bin bags.  We were all geared up for the tremendous effort we had put in. We made partners and, started MISSION CLEAN UP!! We collected tobacco packets and pouches of TIDE washing soap, plastic bags and toothpaste tubes these were the ones creating most nuisance. As always many news reporters had gathered on the spot and began interviews, professional photographers and journalists took information and pictures . After the tiring job and hard work all we longed was energy and something sweet ,here the good news arrives we have something to eat . I wonder where we got this energy to sing from. While returning to school in the bus I thought why do we worship lord's idol and then immerse them in the sea which come back to the shore as waste ,...... instead of harming the nature and it's laws why not use ECO-FRIENDLY idols ,
instead of immersing the idols in the sea why not in the artificial lakes which we've made . I strongly feel that the government should penalize people who don't follow rules and don't worship Eco - friendly idols and don't use the artificial lakes.
help me for the cause !!!
    TASHI
SVKM INTERNATIONAL

Diwali Posters by NCS

2009-11-12T07:23:00.001-08:00

Diwali Rally by OLPS

2009-10-14T09:48:00.000-07:00

Pictures of Diwali rally by OLPS children...

Poetry on Civic Awareness

2009-09-28T08:41:00.000-07:00

NATURE CLEANLINESS

Please don’t be careless,
Have some civic awareness

Earth should be clean,
And very much green

Do not use plastic,
Then it would be fantastic

Lets start garbage seggregation
By dry & wet garbage seperation

Collecting garbage will keep earth clean,
And nature will be better like you have never seen

So let us gather
And do everything together.

- Vaishnavi Jadav (VIII A)
S. M. Shetty School.

Beach Clean up Activity by Navy Children School

2009-09-23T22:53:00.000-07:00

We the cmca members set out to experience what we and other people have done to the precious water at Chowpatty.At 8:00 AM we left school in our school buses.We only used 2 buses so as to save fuel( a very good idea put up by Neerja ma'am).We reached Chowpatty with in 30 minutes.After that we were provided with rubber gloves,aprons and caps which we could take home.We were divided in to groups according to our sections and club names.Each club was given one sack to collect garbage.I first went close to the sand,I saw a bit of plastic and i pulled it ,it wouldnt come;it was like i was trying to pull a banyan trees root.Finally got a big plastic bag which is used to cover electronics.Then i thought i would have a look at the sea.I got a vomiting sensation the first time i picked it up from the the sea;I had a lump of black plastic which had something inside it(i did'nt look at it),something that looked like husk .This was the most disgusting thing i had ever seen i n my whole life & i felt guilty for no reason.All the garbage was taken in a BMC truck.But we did get to collect different shells .In the end my club "ECO WARRIORS"had collected a lot of garbage.Well i felt a little annoyed about how people were polluting our resources but on the whole i loved the clean up.
"Yesterday is past,
Tommorow is future,
Today is a gift that is why it is known as present."
Lets use this gift and stop polluting our natural resources cuz what ever we do today will effect us tommorow.

Sneha Rajan
Navy Children School

CMCA AV

2009-09-22T08:56:00.000-07:00

Below is the CMCA AV on youtube link...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1wqUQKCeZE

Civic Club Launch at Activity High School

2009-09-05T23:27:00.000-07:00

THE ACTIVITY HIGH SCHOOL CIVIC CLUBS’ LAUNCH ON 4-8- 09

Today, the Activity High School had the formal launch of its two Civic Clubs- the Green Teens Civic Club ( VIII A ) and the Conserve Environment Civic Club.( VIII B )

The children of Classes V , VI , VII and VIII had assembled in the school auditorium. The launch commenced sharp at 8:30 a.m. with the children saying their morning prayer and the National Anthem.

Parth Govilkar of CECC compered the programme. Rubina Shreshta of GTCC , Mahiyar Cooper of CECC and Utsav Mayekar of GTCC spoke on CMCA , its activities and the possible ways of trying to achieve its goals.
Heema Doshi and team of CECC then came on stage with their skit on Global Warming. It was interesting to hear the probable causes and the hazards created by the global warming in the universe.
GTCC (Tanisha and team), then took the stage and enacted the skit “ Litterbugs”, an amusing one, which even showed a fortune-teller predicting that our city would indeed become the best and most beautiful city in the world , if the children continued with their efforts to clean up the city. This play went very well with the audience.

Ms Vinodini Lulla then came and addressed the children , urging them to become more conscious of their environment and get rid of their ‘chaltha hai’ attitude. She announced the CMCA Rolling Trophy for the cleanest classroom in the school , which received a great applause from the Principal and the staff alike.

This was followed by the pinning of the CMCA badges on the office bearers of the two Civic Clubs by the Principal. The Club members then took the CMCA oath. The programme ended with a Vote of thanks by Ayushi Shah of the CECC.

JB Petit Club Launch

2009-09-05T22:03:00.000-07:00

These are pictures taken at the JB Club Launch event..

Becon High Club Launch

2009-09-05T13:08:00.000-07:00

Njoi the pictures taken at the beacon high club launch

Hiranandani Foundation School Club Launch

2009-09-05T11:17:00.000-07:00

Below are the pictures from the Club launch event at HFS

Inspiration 2009

2009-08-16T21:41:00.000-07:00

Here are the pictures of the Inspiration 2009 event Njoy!
http://www5.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1992979013/a=224562028_107795788/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Plant a Tree,Save Soil Erosion

2009-06-01T09:17:00.000-07:00

Our exams have just got over and CMCA made our day today by doing something interesting and unique. As usual CMCA had come out with an amazing idea of planting trees. Well we all know trees are very important to us for their various medicinal and environment purposes. But it is very easy to say that we have to plant a tree but there is a way of planting a tree too which we learnt today!!
Well normal trees like the papal tree which looks very usual but it is very useful for soil erosion. Then the rain tree which looks really small but when it grows it becomes a giant tree and it gives out lot of oxygen. Then I slowly learnt that not all trees give out oxygen there are some which absorb the pollutants some that decompose waste material. And all plants have some or the other role in the ecosystem, and their small roles help keep a balance in the ecosystem. And it is really fascinating to see how the ecosystem works.
I am very glad to be a student of CMCA because maybe what we might never plan or even bother to learn about when we grow up is what I learnt today that is “HOW TO PLANT A TREE”. Some people from the hiranandani organization who take care or rather are members of the plants department showed us the various plants and taught us to plant trees. I was the group leader and really enjoyed the whole process of planting a tree. We were taken to a small forest opposite our school to plant a tree. There were huge trenches which were dug for us….we then had to fill the trench with some mud first. Then we had to mix cow dung with the soil. Then we filled the trench with some a mixture of mud and cow dung. After filling the trench we had hold the plant firm to the ground and put some more mixture of the soil around it to make it stand then after making it firm onto the ground we had to level the ground. And put lots of water in the last. Then so that the plant grows properly it was tied to a stick to give it a proper alignment.
At the end of all this I felt yes I had contributed in reducing the pollution in some way. But when the event came to an end I was very sad as it was the last CMCA class and it was the last thing we did at CMCA. The year I spent with CMCA was fun filled and taught me a lot of things like the importance of policemen, traffic policemen, maids, etc. and there were a lot of campaigns too which were really fun and something unique. And basically the full year was fun to spend with CMCA.

- aishwarya.s
8c

Community and Social Responsibility Day

2009-06-01T06:27:00.000-07:00

I had a full day of interaction at the American School today as it was their Community & Social Responsibility Day. I have to say that I was impressed by the school’s commitment to the programme, the teachers’ level of involvement & the independent thinking of the kids who came up with some great stuff.
The started early at 8 AM.. I briefed 30 kids from the 7th grade on safety measures (at the behest of the school) & spoke a little about the garbage problem in our city which was the reason we were going to the area behind the school to clean it up. Vinod Shetty from Acorn Intl was also there with 5 ragpickers who were introduced to the children. After distribution of latex as well as cotton gloves, surgical masks(!) garbage bags & armed with first aid kits, we set out to do the clean up.
Surprisingly, the kids got into the act immediately & didn’t mind getting their hands dirty. The 4 teachers were just as enthusiastic & by the end of 1 hour we had filled up about 20 large garbage bags. The audience of drivers, construction workers & other ragpickers were standing around stupefied watching the activity unfold. We then took the trash outside the school where the ragpickers segregated a small amount & gave us useful information on what could be recycled, the prices for the different types of plastic, metal, paper, milk packets, tetrapacks etc.( I got to learn a lot!)
We then broke up into various groups according to the activity chosen by the kids. Our group of Art From Waste comprised 10 kids & was the largest! Janjri & I had visited the school on the 14th of April to brainstorm ideas with the children. It was decided that they would do an installation of a man throwing trash into a bin. Janjri & Liz from CERE now discussed the execution of the sculpture according to the trash the kids had been collecting over the last week (a list of stuff had been sent by Janjri). Confusion reigned supreme as the students played cricket/handball with the trash but the clock was ticking & when they finally set to work, they did an amazing job. I marvel at the creativity of these kids. They came up with ideas for the actual sculpture which had definitely not occurred to Janjri, Liz or me. The teacher was non-interfering; she was around just to ensure that everyone got involved & that discipline was under control.
At the end of 2 hours, we had a fabulous sculpture. Boxes, empty mineral water bottles, toilet paper rolls, thermocol(or Styrofoam as they call it) made up the man named…oh he had a complicated 7 word name. A couple of boys intelligently strung together the water bottles & toilet paper rolls to make flexible arms & legs. Some girls came up with the idea of scrunching paper & sticking it to the head in an afro hair style. We then had to leave as the screening of the ‘Ragpickers’ film was to take place for all the groups. They quietly sat through although its a long film & had an interactive session with Vinod Shetty post the screening.
They then went back to the project, brought it down to the area outside the canteen & worked on assembling the different parts together. Liz had brought along paste to papier mache the entire model from head to toe with newspaper & magazines. The most interesting part followed… the presentation of all the activities. While we were doing our clean up, another group had gone to do a clean up of the mangroves. They made a brilliant song on the tune of ‘we will, we will rock you’ which was changed to ‘we will, we will save you’ & put the Rolling Stones to shame! Next the group that had filmed our walk & model making showed a film they had made complete with background music et al. Then the drama group put up a hilarious skit on trash at school. Our group then thanked Janjri, Liz & me as we had to leave, but I think another group was to read out the article they had written & the entire lot would then have been taken down to the canteen to see the installation.
I really have to say that it was a very rewarding day & despite the fact that I was there from 8am -3pm, I enjoyed every bit of it!

SOME USEFUL NUMBERS

2009-04-17T01:32:00.000-07:00

SOME USEFUL NUMBERS

BMC Helpline: 1916 (Use this for any complaints against the BMC)

Police Helpline: 1090 (for any grave emergencies)
Police Helpline for women, children & senior citizens: 103
Consumer Helpline: 1800-11-4000 (toll free from BSNL/MTNL lines) or 011- 27662955/56/57/58

You might also find the following websites useful:

www.ncdrc.nic.in to locate the Consumer Redressal Forum in your area
www.mcgm.gov.in – website for Maharashtra Govt

For eco - friendly Ganpatis log on to www.ecoganpati.com

Utsav

2009-04-16T07:41:00.001-07:00

Utsav is CMCA's annual festival where in all the schools get to present as to what do they understand of various civic and environmental issues in the form of skits, songs, games etc. It is in this event that action heroes from various schools are felicitated.

Below are the schools that won prizes in 3 major categories Best stall,Best skit and Best Song
BEST STALL:

1st: Hussain Allana English School
2nd: Hiranandani Foundation School, Powai
3rd: Pali Chimbai Municipal School (Aseema)

BEST SKIT:

1st: Little Flower of Jesus High School
2nd : Beacon High School
3rd: Hiranandani Foundation School, Powai

BEST SONG:

1st: Gopal Sharma Group of Schools (SSC)
2nd: Gopal Sharma Group of Schools (ICSE)

Here are few pictures and articles about UTSAV this year.

On the 31st of January, CMCA’s annual fest ‘Utsav’ was held at St. Aloysius School in Bandra. The fest was filled with talented children, fascinating projects and innovative ways of spreading awareness. The sun shone brightly as we boarded the bus and there started our journey, towards the useful fun and environment friendly fest.

After a long drive we reached school and I was enthralled by the projects the various schools had made.

The projects were very innovative and totally eco friendly. I was stunned by the project that the under Chimbai Municipal school had made. They had transformed a simple cloth into an attractive hand bag. They even showed people how the cloth bag can be used to wrap gifts. I couldn’t think of a better way to save our environment. Many other schools had made colourful charts and meaningful attractive models. This was just the beginning. Then came the singing competition. The crowd cheered and clapped as the performers sang confidently and melodiously. I was enjoying the songs as they were tunes from our favourite Bollywood songs. The songs came to an end as the skits started.

I saw one of the schools perform their skit which was in the form of a street play. They proved their talent by doing a marvelous job. I felt if they actually went to the film industry they would do an amazing job. Our school performed next and did very well. The meaningful skits came to an end and along with it, so did the fun filled ‘UTSAV’.

By the time we went home the sun was at its best. We really enjoyed Utsav and would love to go to the fest again. It was a wonderful and mesmerizing experience which we will always remember and cherish

Aishwarya Sadasivan

VIII C

Hiranandani Foundation School,

Powai.

CMCA Utsav

It was bright and sunny when I reached St.Alyosius at Bandra for CMCA’s annual festival- Utsav. I was told that the school children had arrived at 8:30am to set up their stalls. The program was scheduled to start at 10am, but started a little late because the chief guest Mrs. Seema Redkar had not arrived. Mrs. Redkar is the officer on special duty in the Solid Waste Management department for the BMC. Our second chief guest was the famous cricket commentator Mr. Harsha Bogle. They both spoke to us about how to save the environment and of the impending disaster of Global Warming. They also told us not to be cynical about the government and leave everything to it. After that the awards for the action heroes were given. The action heroes were children who were active citizens as they stopped others from doing things like using plastic bags and urinating on the road. It was an amazing idea to confer these children with awards for helping the city.

The activities for the day were announced and the song competition started. The songs were amazing and a lot of effort was put. Following this there was a break for 10-15 minutes when I played the snakes and ladders game and visited the stalls. I really liked the Hiranandani Foundation, the Jamnabhai Narsee, the Hussain Allana and the Beacon High stalls. There were many stalls put up by other NGOs like ASEEMA and GOONJ .I really loved the GOONJ stall and I bought a skipping rope made from old clothes from them. Some stalls had really advanced technology used in the construction of the exhibits. Another stall that I really liked was put up by the Andheri volunteers. Apart from other tips to reduce global warming it explained how much energy was used by appliances when “off”, but on standby and when they were on.

I also learnt to make a cute spider, using an old mineral water bottle and coloured paper. It was a very different activity and I’m sure that all the children enjoyed it heartily and have put up their spiders in their rooms, mine is on the dressing table mirror. In the middle of the morning, the canteen ran out of snacks, but the day was saved as they had a huge pot of delicious biryani ready. The skit competition had some really well made skits dealing with topics like pollution, corruption and active citizenship. The game “Bin the Waste” and “Antakshari” had to be scrapped due to lack of time, but nonetheless the Utsav was a success.
I really, really enjoyed this Utsav and I hope CMCA keeps improvising and expanding every year.

Kaagni Harekal
CMCA Junior Volunteer

Best out of Waste

2009-04-12T03:09:00.000-07:00

Turning trash into a piece a of art by our students....

And Few of our volunteers making bags out old Newspapers....

Traffic Police Day

2009-04-12T01:52:00.000-07:00

A day to pay our gratitude and compliment the most deserving people in the city, who often go unnoticed: The Police Man.

These are the men who toil in the heat so as make sure the city’s law and order is maintained. Man is of nature to always see the glass half empty, but we at CMCA make it a point to acknowledge these men for their hard work. Just imagine the menace one would have to face if we did not have the protection that we receive.

On 13th February 2009, CMCA school children visited the Police Head Quarters, Mumbai at Worli. There were approximately a 100 school children eagerly waiting for the felicitation process to start so as to thank these officers of all ranks.

Once the children had finished thanking the officer’s one of the senior most officer was so touched by this show of gratitude that one could see a tear in his eye. To quote him, “In his entire career as an officer, No one had said a thank you for their noteworthy work” and today when a bunch of school kids had done so the tears did not seem to stop.
Next was a speech with a message from the Assistant Commissioner of Police who quite charged up the crowd with his facts.

After which came an audio visual with hard hitting facts about the necessities in order to maintain road discipline, whether one was driving or crossing the road and if one did not the adverse consequences man would have to face, which could be any from loosing a limb to even ones life.
We were then shown the control room and how messages were sent to all patrolling cars on the streets, the newly installed CCTV cameras amazed everyone as to how much we have advanced, a cop sitting at worli could see what was happening at CST.

With this came the end of the event.

Here are our Students trying to understand a day in traffic police's life...

Diwali Campaign and schedule

2009-04-12T01:48:00.000-07:00

CMCA’S CAMPAIGN FOR A POLLUTION FREE DIWALI

About us:

Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA) is a forum of school children in Mumbai, founded on the belief that children are the most powerful messengers of change.

CMCA has been spearheading efforts to inculcate civic and environmental consciousness through Civic Clubs in schools. CMCA has thus far instituted more than 40 Civic Clubs in about 20 schools in Mumbai, including schools with under-privileged children and has reached out to more than 10,000 students - their homes, their friends and their neighbourhood through various campaigns.

CMCA Volunteers take sessions once a week in a given school, on civic & environmental issues and children are encouraged to spread the message to their friends, family members, etc. We thus hope for a ‘ripple effect’ in bringing about a better civic sense within the city.

Children from CMCA have spread awareness on various issues, including that of celebrating Ganpati in an eco-friendly manner, segregating garbage, saying no to plastic bags, etc.

The Campaign:

Every year, CMCA Teacher volunteers speak to the children and get them to spread awareness about having a pollution free Diwali.

Children are told about the pollution caused by the fire crackers, in terms of noise, the air quality as well as the garbage the next morning. Children are also sensitised about child labour that is involved in the making of fire crackers.

Children are then asked to spread the message to others as well, in the city.

Last year we had very successfully done 4 rallies in the city – at Andheri, Powai, Chembur and Marine Drive, with over 1000 children participating in them.
Children stood silently on the footpaths for about an hour in the morning on the designated day, with posters and stickers (on their uniforms) – all carrying the message of a pollution free Diwali (Say no to fire crackers / I want a safe Diwali / I want a pollution free Diwali, etc)

Passers-by and commuters who saw the children with these messages were extremely supportive and even applauded some of them.

This year, we are planning to repeat the exercise. The dates are as follows:

LOCATION SCHOOLS DATE TIME

Peddar Road Villa Theresa 13/10 9.00 – 10.00 am

Andheri Jankidevi Public School 17/10 8.30 – 9.30 am
(Contact person: Sangeeta Harekal: 9820272889

Matunga Amulakh Amichand 18/10 9.00 – 10.00 am
Matunga Premier
(Contact person: Suchita Gosar: 9920734002

Chembur OLPS 18/10 10.00 -11.00 am
(Contact person: Effie Acharya: 9223429597)

Powai Hiranandani Foundation 20/10 9.00 – 10.00 am
Gopal Sharma
(Contact person: Sushma Shetty: 9920022049)

Marine Drive Navy Children School 20/10 9.30 – 10.30 am
(Contact person: Vinodini Lulla: 9820638439)

For more information call CMCA Mumbai Coordinator,
Vinodini Lulla: 9820638439
cmcamumbai@gmail.com
www.cmcaindia.org

Beach Cleanup

2009-03-24T05:54:00.000-07:00

THE WORLD CHANGERS

2008-11-11T03:01:00.000-08:00

We are world changers we will clean
Our whole area and make it green
Say no to plastic
Say no to them
say no to garbage
and make it clean.
we will clean we will clean
and make our world bright and clean
we are world changers
we will never dirty
and if anyone litters
we will make it clean
it’s my dream
to make India
like America and Britain
we will make India the cleanest country
for this I will thank CMCA
for the awareness to make our environment clean.

- World Changers, CNMS

SAY NO TO CRACKERS!!!

2008-11-03T09:56:00.000-08:00

CHILDREN PLEA FOR A POLLUTION FREE DIWALI

Office goers were treated to an unusual sight on Monday morning on Peddar Road.

Over 100 students from Villa Theresa High School stood on the pavements of the busy Peddar Road on Monday morning, holding big banners and placards and with stickers on their uniforms, pleading for a pollution free Diwali. They urged passers-by and motorists not to burn fire crackers this Diwali. The children are part of Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness which is a forum of school children in Mumbai, founded on the belief that children are the most powerful messengers of change.

More rallies will be held in other parts of the city over the next few days:

Andheri, D.N. Road 17th October
Chembur Diamond Garden 18th October
Matunga 19th October
Powai Hiranandani gardens 20th October
Marine Drive 20th October

Over 1000 children will be participating in these rallies, in an attempt to spread the message to the city of Mumbai.

Every year, CMCA Teacher volunteers speak to the children and get them to spread awareness about having a pollution free Diwali.

Children are told about the pollution caused by the fire crackers, in terms of noise, the air quality as well as the garbage the next morning. Children are also sensitised about child labour that is involved in the making of fire crackers.

Children are then asked to spread the message to others as well, in the city.

About us:

CMCA has been spearheading efforts to inculcate civic and environmental consciousness through Civic Clubs in schools. CMCA has thus far instituted more than 40 Civic Clubs in about 20 schools in Mumbai, including schools with under-privileged children and has reached out to more than 10,000 students - their homes, their friends and their neighbourhood through various campaigns.

CMCA Volunteers take sessions once a week in a given school, on civic & environmental issues and children are encouraged to spread the message to their friends, family members, etc. We thus hope for a ‘ripple effect’ in bringing about a better civic sense within the city.

Children from CMCA have spread awareness on various issues, including that of celebrating Ganpati in an eco-friendly manner, segregating garbage, saying no to plastic bags, etc.

CMCA was stated in 2000 by Public Affairs Centre, Bangalore and is currently present in Mysore, Hubli-Dharwad and Hosur too. In Mumbai, the Sophia College Ex-Students’ Association (SCESA) supports CMCA.

For more information, please visit www.cmcaindia.org / call Vinodini Lulla on 9820638439.

Diwali Rally – The festival was back round the corner, wherein people go ahead lighting up the city with crackers, diyas etc. Our motto this year was the same but with a stronger appeal and look to it.

School kids made the most out of this rally seeing to it that every passer by would notice the poster in some form or another. And that the word of having a safe and less noisy Diwali would be sent across.

The human chain was the eye catcher for any onlooker and having so many kids come together just made the whole rally all the more forceful.
Kids vouched to burst, comparatively lesser the amount of crackers. Thus help reduce pollution in any manner possible.

A Dream Of Diwali and disaster for our future.
A festival of light,
A day of darkness,
The happiness of crackers,
The sadness for our future.
Your happiness causes,the world's sorrow.
So are you still planning to burst crackers,
Cause if you are you just burning money.
Your happiness is momentary.
But the sorrow is forever.
Be a true citizen,
and celebrate a noiseless and cracker less diwali.
Work together for the environment,
then the environment will be with you.
You go against it,
It will go against you.
So you decide for yourself.
The actions are fun,
But consequence are heavy.
So go ahead and celebrate a cracker less and noiseless diwali,
And save the environment or,
Later you will have to save yourself.

Aishwarya .S
The Evolution Club. Hiranandani Foundation School (Powai)

2008-07-17T22:50:00.000-07:00

Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA) is a forum of school children in Mumbai, founded on the belief that children are the most powerful messengers of change.

CMCA has been spearheading efforts to inculcate civic and environmental consciousness through Civic Clubs in schools. CMCA has thus far instituted more than 40 Civic Clubs in about 20 schools in Mumbai, including schools with under-privileged children and has reached out to more than 10,000 students - their homes, their friends and their neighbourhood through various campaigns.

CMCA Volunteers take sessions once a week in a given school, on civic & environmental issues and children are encouraged to spread the message to their friends, family members, etc. We thus hope for a ‘ripple effect’ in bringing about a better civic sense within the city.

Children from CMCA have spread awareness on various issues, including that of celebrating Ganpati in an eco-friendly manner, segregating garbage, having a pollution-free Diwali, water conservation, etc.

More details about us are available on our website: cmcaindia.org. But this is an invitation to everyone connected with CMCA to write in and share intersting things! Our e-mail is: cmcamumbai@gmail.com