Gundbala Food garden

Gundbala School Garden Report

Objectives:

1)      Conduct a health survey of the village children; see what deficiencies there are and how they can be remedied by nutritional inputs/projects involving the garden.

2)      Work with the teachers to convince them of the need to have a food, pharmacy and flower garden for the children and steer them towards a conservation oriented approach to learning (tough task but we will try!)

3)      Work with the students to create a basic home garden with both food and medicinal plants, since both are linked to nutrition. Create lesson plans that connect the garden with lessons in their text books. Topics will include soil health, planting, seed saving, pest and disease management, harvesting, storage and food hints.

4)      Teach the children nursery techniques through raising forest saplings (they can collect seeds from the surrounding forest.) Since fish and other animals are hunted from the forests and rivers, and provide a huge protein input to the community, it is important to also foster this link to forest ecosystem health.

5)      The programme will have a ripple effect on the 30 women of the immediate surroundings who are part of a couple of self-help groups and with whom Gundbala Welfare and Educational Trust has regular engagement. It will also extend to the 32 local men working in the village cashew resin factory.

6)      Begin evolving a localized full fledged conservation education strategy and curriculum for the school through this effort. Forest gardening depends on a healthy forest. It will be especially interesting to take the children for bird watching sessions, explore water issues through the nearby river, and become aware of the many local environmental problems and solutions. We hope that this initiative can be the precursor to a larger programme that we could take on as a follow-up.

Study Area:

Gundbala is a tiny village of 610 people nestled in the foot hills of Karnataka’s Western Ghats in India. It is on the banks of the river Gangavalli that flows into the Arabian Sea, having originated in the upper reaches of the ghats. The community here is mixed – Kari Vokkals, Havyak Brahmins, Halliki Vokkals and others. The primary occupation is agriculture and collection of non-timber forest products from the forests. You don’t see abject poverty here like you do in other parts of India, but people do lead frugal lives. Some communities have been highly marginalized for generations. There is one school in the village up to grade VII.

Target Audience:

The village school children and the local community, through the children.

Accomplishments Thus Far:

·         Garden land cleared and gardening started. The garden site before much work (left, July 2010) and recently ( right, 20 November 2010):

 

·         Classroom sessions, both lectures and audiovisual presentations. Teaching a planting song:

  ·  Tools purchased; the children and a local farmer who works at the cashew resin factory (paid on an hourly basis so he does not miss wages) are now ready to work in the garden. They make rows for planting, in which they have planted jasmine, roses and lily bulbs as well as local vegetables. (August 2010.)

 

·         Vegetables—okra, bottle gourds, bitter gourds and ash gourds—grew voraciously (September 2010.)

In addition to weekly gardening sessions, the following activities were conducted:

·         An audio-visual session about snakes was held in the hope that the children would learn that snakes can be dealt with in a way other than killing. October brings a two-week vacation; the students agreed to come as often as necessary to care for the garden, and this was planned. They have been collecting manure for the garden on their own.

·         Work with the local village women’s self-help group (SHG) was also conducted. Many of these women have children at the school. A meeting about the dangers of pesticide use was held. The women agreed that growing their own vegetables would not only provide them with vital supplements but also help them save money. Women whose children went to school said they would encourage them to grow a kitchen garden at home. This integration of home and school lessons is especially important.

·         During the vacation, the students came to school for: sessions on using microscopes to look at plants, a classroom session on birds and observational skills, and a bird watching trip. They also came to provide the vines in the garden with proper support. Very sadly, grazing cows lifted the barbed wire fencing with their horns and ate a lot of the vegetables. The fencing was reinforced with locally sourced poles, but it has become apparent that a stronger fence, perhaps a bio-fence of agave plants, will be necessary. (Cow damage, October 2010.)

·         A dentist visited the school and examined the children (tooth decay is a rampant problem,
 as children tend to eat a lot of sugar.) The local rotary club donated pens, notebooks, toothbrushes and toothpaste. The gourds that the cows spared are well into fruiting. (November 2010.)

 

·         Children from the JC English Medium School visited and performed two short skits, one about the many benefits of trees and one very entertaining one about the environmental threats of plastic. Left, the village school children watching the play; right, the Plastic Demon kills animals, villagers and tourists alike. In addition, the school cooks made sambar from one of the gourds the children grew! (November 2010.)

        

·         Pickle was made of the bitter gourds the children grew, to be eaten with their lunch at school. Cloth bags were also given to the students who come to school outside of school hours to care for the garden. (November 2010.)

                                  

·         It should also be noted that my work includes a lot of work outside school. For instance, to have a garden, the school must have a well for water, and it currently does not. Although there may be government money for a well at a school, the work of securing permits falls to me. The same goes for arranging for the land to be surveyed, so that the school’s boundaries are clear and a fence can be built to resist marauding cattle. These tasks require arduous travel and a lot of waiting in government offices!

·         Final Notes: The reception of the school garden by students, teachers and community members alike has been wonderful. The students will come to school on a Sunday to make beds and to plant; one student even brought chili saplings for the garden. The teachers are willing to accommodate garden lessons during school hours, attend audiovisual presentations, and offer food and tea to any guests (dentist, other school groups, etc.) Community members have donated time, seeds and manure to the school garden, even bringing the manure themselves. This garden is becoming a great way for community members to show interest and investment in their children’s education!

A second round of planting and sowing was done on 21st Nov.

Antiplastic Campaign by DNA club members, Jaycee School, Ankola

ANTI PLASTIC CAMPAIGN IN ANKOLA TOWN

DNA (Department of Biotechnology Natural Resources Awareness) Club, Jaycee High School, Hattikeri, Ankola

The DNA club was started in 2008 and has since been involved in various environment related activities. I have been the club coordinator since its inception. During one of our sessions a student very simply said that it was not enough to reduce the individual use of plastic carry bags but something needs to be done on a larger scale. She also wondered why the Government cannot ban their use, knowing well the ill effects. I was waiting for an opportunity to involve the students in an anti plastic campaign ever since. I spoke to the tahsildar, Dr. Udaykumar Shetty about it and he promised to lend his support. We had to however wait until the exams were over to launch the campaign.

The Campaign was planned in three stages:

I.                    Survey of per day plastic carry bag consumption in the main market area.

II.                 Awareness Campaign – Street plays, posters and banners.

III.               Training: Exploring alternatives like cloth bags, paper bags, Jute bags and Nylon (tungis) bags, conduct workshops to train the student trainers (TOT) who in turn would train the members of self help groups to produce some of these and to assist them to get whole sale materials and market finished goods.

I.                    Survey of per day plastic carry bag consumption in the main market area of Ankola Town:

Objectives:

1. to find out the approximate number of plastic bags used per day by different kinds of shops.
2. to enumerate the responses of these shopkeepers and reasons thereof.
3. to find whether they suggest any alternatives other than those identified by us.
4. to spread awareness about the dangers of using plastic carry bags.

  Method & Findings:

Students were divided into eleven groups of two each. Survey schedules were printed and the students instructed in filling them. The students were then allotted different areas in the town market to conduct the survey.

Dr, Uday Kumar Shetty, Ankola Tehsildar and in charge Chief Officer of the town Municipality himself launched the survey.

Some Responses by the shop owners:

Most of the shop keepers were of the opinion that it would be a good thing if plastic carry bags were banned. They said it was because the consumers demanded that they used them.

When a shopkeeper opined that while a cloth bag would cost about Rs. 10, a plastic bag would cost only 50p, the student responded by saying that a cloth bag could be used again and again for years whereas a plastic cover could or rather is used only once. Therefore in the long run the cloth bag would cost less and being eco friendly would not pollute. Also if the hidden cost of plastic on environment and health is considered they work out to be rather expensive.

A person selling cold drinks wondered why the Government does not ban the manufacture of plastic carry bags.

A Baker wanted the students not to write the actual number of Plastic bags he used which was about a thousand per day but note down the number as 200  as he did not want any trouble from the authorities.

Another felt that the Government should create a market for the plastic waste. If it fetched a good price then people would sell the waste which could then be recycled. This would also create employment.

A couple of them encouraged the students in their endeavor and asked them to demand a total ban and go on a strike if necessary! They said even if it worked out to be expensive they are ready to buy cloth bags.

One of the shop keepers was downright rude and said “Your parents cannot do without plastics. They use them from their birth to their death. Can you imagine how many that would be? Why don’t you first ask their parents to stop using plastic?” To this the student retorted, “I have already told my parents that and now I am telling you!!”

Shop to shop survey and …..

…. consolidation

The data so collected was consolidated and the average carry bag consumption by shops of different categories was tabulated. It was estimated that the total per day consumption of plastic carry bags in Ankola town market was around 1 lakh!

II. Awareness Campaign – Street plays, posters and banners.

Soon after the survey was completed the students got busy with painting posters for the awareness campaign. They were also getting ready with their street play and slogans. Within a week the tahsildar made official arrangements for the stage function and subsequent procession and street play.

Street play

III. Training:

Training of Trainers (TOT)

On 2^nd and 3^rd of April the DNA club members were trained by their coordinator to make bags out of different sizes and kinds with old newspapers. They were also taught to make their own glue with flour and Copper Sulphate. Fourteen members volunteered to get the training and in turn train the members of the five self help groups of a nearby hamlet, Ambarkodl.

Training of Women of Self Help Groups:

On 4^th of April around 50 women of five self help groups were trained by the students with the help of old newspapers donated by their parents. The women’s response was excellent and they showed keen interest to learn. The children were amazing and conducted the workshop with great maturity. They also enacted a skit

and action song that spoke about being eco friendly.

Post Script: It so happened that soon after our anti plastic campaign the new D.C. who was transferred to Uttar Kannada advertised in the dailies that those organizations interested in the working towards the plastic ban could contact him directly. The DNA members lost no time in getting an appointment with him and briefed him with the work that they had done. He was quite impressed with the presentation of the children and visited our school the next week. On August 15^th the club members were invited to the district headquarters to enact the anti plastic street play for the Independence Day celebrations. The D.C. wanted us to visit the other schools in the vicinity and create awareness among the children. He had promised to hold a meeting in our school along with the D.D.P.I. (Deputy Director of Public Instructions) and the Mandal Panchyat members to work out the logistics. Unfortunately before that could happen he was transferred. Needless to say the children are all very disappointed.