Plant a Tree,Save Soil Erosion

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

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!