Wildlife Week Celebrations

CEE Madhya Pradesh State Office observed the wildlife week celebration in collaboration with Van Vihar National Park, ZOO Outreach organization and WWF- India. School and Colleges students, Press and Media, representatives from government and NGOs participated in the programme held from1-7 October. Dharmaraj Patil, CEE delivered a lecture on Biodiversity to press, media and NGO representatives on 3 October, and for teachers on 4 October. CEE organized programme with Satputra Tiger Reserve, Hosangabad on 6 October.

The wildlife week celebrations organized by CEE Madhya Pradesh reached out to more than 200 participants.

CEE Jaipur, in collaboration with Jaipur Zoo and Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board celebrated the Wildlife Week from 1-7 October 2010 at Jaipur Zoo.

The objectives of the five-day event were to generate interest about wildlife amongst the younger generations, develop better understanding about the role and importance of wildlife in balancing environment, and to reach out to the schools with the conservation message.

During the week, CEE supported Jaipur Zoo to conduct a number of activities including quiz, drawing and painting, essay writing, photo identification and elocution competitions. Through the week a variety of games related to environment were played.

CEE supported the event as a State Resource Agency of National Green Crops in Rajasthan.

Nearly 10,000 students from 15 NGC schools and 25 other schools of Jaipur visited the Zoo, and around 2000 students participated in the different activities.

Honorable Minister of Environment and Forest
Mr. Ramlal Jat, was Chief Guest at the valedictory function on 7 October at Jaipur Zoo.

Eco festival campaign

A mass awareness campaign on Diwali festival 2010 was organized in collaboration with CPCB, Zonal Office Bhopal and CEE MP to enlighten the school children about the health effects and pollution caused by bursting fire crackers during Diwali. The programme included a demonstration of air quality and noise pollution monitoring equipment. The programme was conducted in three government and private schools of Bhopal . The pamphlet “Say NO to Fire Crackers and YES to Eco Friendly Diwali” was distributed to participants.

More then 500 students and teachers participated in the eco-friendly Diwali campaign.

Learning Network Workshop On Low Carbon Lifestyles

Ms. Reema Banerjee from CEE was invited as a resource person to facilitate a four-hour workshop for 150 students of IIT Kharagpur.The workshop on 23 October aimed at generating an inclination among the students towards understanding the concept of ESD, and motivating them to adopt low carbon lifestyles to mitigate the Climate Change effects.

The Learning Network workshop was organized by AIESEC- IIT Kharagpur Chapter as part of their Green Vision.

Reema initiated the discussion by taking the students through a journey of important ESD milestones and issues. This was followed by screening of a snippet from the film “An Inconvenient Truth”. The students reflected, in groups, on their understanding of the technological, educational, policy level and social reforms, which are imperative to make a difference in context of climate change and ESD.

The session was made interactive by inviting the students to reflect their views in different styles which took the form of skit, song, painting, commentary and formal presentation

The concept of Paryavaran Mitra and Handprint for Sustainability was also showcased to the students. The low-carbon lifestyles presentation served to make students aware of the small but significant steps that could be taken by every person to “Cool the Planet”. The workshop culminated with the students taking an oath to become a Paryavaran Mitra and to pledge to Practice and Promote Low Carbon Lifestyle. Praveen Bharadhwaj from CEE East co-facilitated the workshop.

Trustee in Sristi organization

Ms. Rita Vora (Programme Associate, CEE, Jasdan Field Office) has been appointed as a trustee in the Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions (SRISTI), Ahmedabad.

Rita Vora, penning notes in her diary, is perhaps the youngest field staff member of CEE to receive such an honour.

SRISTI is a non-governmental organization, set up to strengthen the creativity of grassroots innovators, inventors and entrepreneurs engaged in conserving biodiversity and developing eco-friendly solutions to local problems. Professor Anil Gupta, (IIMA) is founder president of SRISTI.

Rita is an active member of Rural Programmes Group of CEE since 2000. The invitation to become a trustee is a recognition of her commitment at the grassroot level in the areas of promoting eco-entrepreneurship and innovative sustainable livelihoods ideas with women in CEE's field office.

Master Trainer Workshop

A two-day Master Trainer and Quiz Master workshop was organized under National Green Corps (NGC) programme held at Water And Land Management Institute ( WALMI), Bhopal on 19 and 20 October. More than 80 participants from across the state participated. The organizer of The workshop was organized by EPCO which is the NGC Nodal Agency. CEE Madhya Pradesh is the resource agency for NGC programme in the state.

CEE facilitated the workshop, which included deleivering a lecture and conducting a quiz.

International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction 2010 celebrated in Kashmir

In continuation with CEE's effort towards a safer and disaster-resilient society in Kashmir valley, the International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction was celebrated at Government High School Salamabad on 13 October. Salamabad was one of the severely affected villages of Uri tehsil of district Baramulla during the 2005 earthquake.

An activity “Hazard to Disaster” was conducted on this occasion to pass on the basic understanding of disaster risk reduction (DRR) in children

Various other activities organized on this occasion included extempore speeches and a drawing competition on the theme of the day “Making Cities Resilient, My City Getting Ready”. Children expressed their views and concern on local environmental issues and hazards like floods, deforestation, landslides and avalanche. Their drawings depicted earthquake scenarios and the devastation during disasters. Some of them sketched rescue and recovery operations as well. Winners of these competitions were awarded with prizes. A group song was presented by students of Government High School Salamabad in local Pahari dialect with the message to save environment. About 150 children and 20 teachers from 4 schools participated in the event.

CEE has reconstructed the building of the host school which was totally damaged during the earthquake. CEE is now developing this school as a Resource Centre for DRR education and preparedness by building the capacity of teachers and students through trainings and regular visits, organizing drills, providing relevant IEC material, and involving parents and community during various events celebrated in the school.

Regional Representative for the International Zoo Educators' Association (IZE)

Meena Nareshwar from CEE made a presentation on ‘Connecting Children to Nature. The CEE Way' at the 20th IZE Conference which was hosted by Disney's Animal Kingdom, and held at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort, Florida , USA . The theme for the conference was "Connecting Children to Nature". Educators from around the world shared their exciting education programs, partnerships and evaluations through 47 paper presentations, 19 poster presentations, 3 panels, and 4 workshops. The conference provided many opportunities for sharing and connecting between zoo educators.

During the conference there was also election for regional representatives for the IZE.

Meena Nareshwar was selected as the South Asian Representative for Zoo Education by IZE for the term from 2010-2014. The South Asian region includes eight countries namely Sri Lanka , Bangladesh , Nepal , India , Maldives , Afghanistan , Pakistan and Bhutan .

The Regional representative role is to actively solicit members and promote membership in IZE; encourage formal and informal communication among members at regional level, through meetings, workshops, etc and link regional and international interests of the Association, as well as increase communication among members.

Regional Representatives with the IZE Board

 
CEE