From poster-making to Edinburgh

What started off as a poster competition culminated in a trip to Edinburgh, U.K. In 1997, Development Alternatives invited entries for a poster competition from children participating in CLEAN. The competition was organised in partnership with a UK based organisation - Heartstone. The response to the competition was overwhelming. Some of the best posters were sent to Edinburgh to be exhibited at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet - CHOGM. An unexpected turn of events was an invitation for two CLEAN children to participate in the Commonwealth Children’s Summit which was taking place along with CHOGM. This posed a challenge for us, because it meant that two children had to be selected from a group of thirty. Finally, two girls from the Naval Public School cruised their way through the interviews and had the opportunity of travelling to Edinburgh.

Children from different countries participated in the Summit and discussed issues concerning children of the world such as child labour, education, freedom, racism, environment and economic imbalances. The children’s views and concerns were presented in the Bill of Rights to the British Prime Minister - Tony Blair.

DEAN Mela

In January 1998, Development Alternatives organised a large event - the DEAN Mela - to provide the children participating in the programme a forum to express their concerns for the environment.

Each of the schools participating in the programme put up models to show how the environment could be improved at the community level. The stalls were manned by student representatives. Models showing water conservation, energy conservation, solid waste management, etc. were developed very innovatively by the students. Posters with thought provoking slogans caught the attention of the visitors. About 4000 children visited the Mela.

An environment quiz, poster competition and a street play attracted a lot of students. The Mela was a two day event. The high-light of the second day 

was the public hearing. Heads of different government agencies, including Mr.Dilip Biswas of CPCB, had to face a volley of questions posed by children regarding the slack attitude of the government towards the environment.

The Mela provided a very good opportunity for children to share their views about the environment and it also helped to involve more schools in the DEAN programme.

One of the events regularly organised by United Nations Environment Programme is the International Children’s Conference on Environment with the slogan "Leave it to us". The second ICCE was held in Kenya in November 1998. ICCE is organised to bring children from all over the world together and make their voice heard, share projects and action and take home ideas about positive environmental action.

CLEAN was invited to send its student members as delegates to the Conference. After two rounds of screening, four students and two teachers were selected to represent CLEAN at Nairobi. The visit of the students was sponsored by Coca Cola India.

At the conference, 600 children from 60 countries worked on three themes : Wildlife in Danger, Waste and Recycling and Media and the Environment. The sessions consisted of workshops, field trips, poster making, discussions and of course a lot of fun and excitement. A key feature of every ICCE is a set of 21 challenges put forth by the children to the UN, the governments of the world and to the people of the world.

An annual event organised by Development Alternatives is the CLEAN Meet. The Meet provides an opportunity for students, teachers and NGO partners to come together and share their experiences of the last one year. Presentations are made by students on the results and observations of the environmental quality of their respective towns and cities. The results are based on the seasonal monitoring of the water and air quality and supplemented by the information gathered during the local area survey. The presentations also focus on the projects initiated by schools to improve the environment within the school campus and at the community level. The presentations are evaluated by a panel of judges and awards are given for the three best presentations.

The CLEAN Meet also has other activities like ice-breaking games, quiz, cultural programmes, etc. to create an atmosphere of fun and excitement and help the participants from different CLEAN centres interact with one another. q