The Crisis

For our initiative to improve the fragile ecosystem of Himalayas, we chose the Champawat District of Uttarakhand. The problem of illegal felling widely persists in this area. As the forest cover has declined, there is a huge fuelwood and fodder crisis. Destruction of forest cover has also affected the volume of water discharged from the springs. The depleted forest cover, home to many wild animals, has exposed the villagers and the livestock to their unwelcome visits as the animals strayed into the village in search of shelter and food. All this has led to a desperate situation and call for immediate action.

The Project

Green School Green Community Program aims to regularly conduct environmental education classes in government schools, based on experiential learning or Do-It-Yourself activities. Teach for green aims to bridge the gap between the surrounding environment and the human community by strengthening an individual’s interaction with nature through 'learning by doing’ concept and hence ensure life-long learning of this value. We are mobilizing the community on various issues like clean water crisis, energy crisis, water wastage, abatement of plastics, usage of nature-friendly resources, sanitation and unhygienic conditions. Our students had designed basic circuits and have further used this skill to create solar powered torches and lamps by themselves. We are working with 1000 students directly. More than 100 students had participated in 10 competitions on the local and national level related to environmental issues.

Long Term Vision

We as a TFG team, our long-term vision as a changemaker is to create schools as an experimental lab and role model setup in sustainable development for the community stakeholders. In the next 5 years, we want to create 100 transformative schools where there are green labs with teachers assigned for the eco club are actively participating in green schools to ensure sustainability.

Methodology

The program is divided into phases for better understanding of the structure of the project-

Phase I: During this phase, we have meetings with school authorities and other community members to give them a platform to raise their concerns and issues. These meetings are also to give the community members a chance to understand our program and the level of involvement with their children.

Phase II: We focus on students between 6th to 9th standard. The course content covers topics like basic engineering, energy-environment, waste management, agriculture, and home and health. Students get involved in various tasks which include individual and group activities, model designing, peer learning, community engagement, etc. The environmental education session by Teach For Green is conducted once a week for about 2-3 hours. These sessions are taken by one of our facilitators along with an environmental or science teacher.

Phase III: This phase is basically composed of community engagement by the students. Open democratic discussions are held at community and school level, which is led and facilitated by students to discuss environment-related problems. This session is held once a month. The program also involves environmental awareness activities for and by children such as lectures, inter-school debates, rallies, street plays, wall paintings, plantation drives, etc.

Outcomes

Due to the involvement of various stakeholders in our activity, we have got amazing outcomes like:

• Enhancement in life skills such as confidence, peer learning, taking initiative, problem-solving
• Sensitization about the issue and identifying their root cause
• Households have become energy efficient and reliable on green energy sources.
• Strengthen the relationship between Community and Schools
• Almost 30% reduction of daily plastic use in the community
• Establishment of the kitchen garden and hanging garden in backyard and rooftops in 200 houses
• Compost preparation and the production of organic fertilizers from kitchen waste by every home

Sustainability and Impact

The success of our organization depends on the performance of the students and how much of an impact they are able to make in their household and at the community level. Since the most significant stakeholders of our program are the students and the fellows; we have proposed a rating system in both quantitative and qualitative terms. The students are monitored based on how they develop their knowledge, skills, and mindset through the various course of the program. As change makers, we expect the students to create impacts that would reflect their understanding of what we teach them. Positive impacts in their community and being able to change the mindset of their family members towards sustainable living practices is the greatest success for our organization.

Proposed plans

In the next two years, we hope to spread our impact through the ‘Green School Green Community’ program, to over more 30 schools and 30 communities, engaging six fellows in this process. We are currently in the process of creating a framework for the same. With expertise from Wipro fellowship and IIM, Banglore we are confident of achieving our goal. We plan to create ever engaging eco club in each and every school where even the community is equally participative. Our current program has enabled school students to participate in various district and national level competitions and workshops related to environmental sustainability and green practices. We hope to see this number rise in the coming years. With our fellowship program framework, we want to reach out to school authorities and the parents of the students to be able to create a much larger impact. We also hope to reach out to other states of our country with the help of the governments and other related organizations. We plan to strengthen the present education system by providing training to teachers. Our workshops would include parents as well. From schools to housing societies, we will cover the whole range of audience.

Usage of Funds

The funds will be used for the following purposes:

1. Non-Recurring Cost- Laptops, Table, Chair, Fan, Printer, Water Purifier  
2. Recurring Cost- Human Resources, Founder Director, Program Manager, Marketing & Communication Manager, Fellow
3. School Resources- Raw materials & Consumable, Training tools
4. Training of Fellows-Training Materials, Travel, food and space
5. Travel- Local Transportation, Field Visits, Meeting and Conferences
6. Office- Office Rent, Stationary, Telephone/Internet, Electricity, water
7. Event & Outreach- PR related Events on Green Energy and Environment, Meetings with prospective institutions, investors, and entrepreneurs, Online and Offline media
8. Audit Cost
9. Baseline Survey
10.Monitoring and Evaluation
11.Curriculum Design

A detailed budget will be shared upon request.

TAX BENEFITS:

Funding for this campaign is eligible for tax breaks asTEACH FOR GREEN is a registered trust and you can avail of benefits under section 80G of the IT act. Foreign funding is not accepted.

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