It was a week of planning, networking and training at CEE when the Centre celebrated its Annual Week from 2nd to 6th February, 2015. Coinciding with 30 glorious years of work in environment education, the Annual Week – CEE 30 – had staff members from across the country joining in to deliberate on issues of environmental impact and organizational relevance.

CEE 30 looked ahead at building on strengths for the future, and towards this, had pertinent sessions revolving around training and project planning. Sessions capturing the Centre’s glorious journey over the past 30 years, deliberations over CEE Targets for 2014-19, and project-specific meetings, were conducted over the course of the week. And while the essential training modules - on effective writing and project management, proposal development, fund raising, and capacity-building local partners - apprised the staff on the various procedures and systems that support the programmes and projects, field visits to the nearby project offices succeeded in familiarizing the staff on the operationalization of a project office. ‘Manoranjan’, the cultural programme performed by staff members and their families, added the fun quotient to this week of deliberations and debates.

At the closing ceremony, staff members who had completed 20 years in the organization were honoured with awards, for their contribution and commitment.

A workshop to conclude the final step of the Learning Journey of the Global Citizenship for Sustainability (GCS) Marine Programme, funded by Adani Foundation and Mangroves for the Future, was held on 11th and 12th February, 2015, at CEE Ahmedabad. The GCS Committees from 4 schools namely The Aditya Birla Public School, Kesrol, Tapti Valley International School, Surat, MMEW High School, Mangrol and Nand Vidya Niketan Essar, Jamnagar, participated in this workshop and presented their projects, which were undertaken along the coastal area near their respective towns. Further, each school committee discussed the thought-processes behind certain decisions taken while doing the project, the difficulties faced during the project, and the improvements they would make in the future to continue the project.

The other sessions conducted during the workshop included an online interaction wherein the GCS students, along with a local school - Mahatma Gandhi International School – interacted with the students in Germany on the topic of Social Justice, a hands-on-interactive session on Information and Communication Tools wherein the students learnt about the tools available freely to enhance their project reports, and a visit to the Serenity Library where the students learnt about the pond ecosystem and organic sustainable farming.

As part of the Dolphin conservation education programme, school-cluster level awareness programmes were conducted at nine dolphin locations including Bahraich, Varanasi, Allahabad, Meerut, Supaul, Begusarai and West Champaran.

Each dolphin cluster organized dolphin awareness activities including essay-writing and painting competition, quiz competition, awareness rallies/drives, exposure visits to the river bank and fun-and-learn activities. More than 2500 children from the dolphin clubs put forth models, drawings, songs and poems that showcased their creativity and thoughts about dolphins.

CEE participated in the PlastIndia Exhibition 2015 held in Gandhinagar from 5-10th February. The Centre also provided support to the exhibition by designing eleven educational modules on the theme of ‘Waste is a Resource’. The theme was chosen with a view to bring in awareness, and encourage visitors and business firms to take up business in waste management.

Nearly 1.5 lakh people visited the exhibition, which showcased waste management of plastic and e-waste, and highlighted the best practices and handling rules. The Polyloom technology of recycling polyethene bags of size less than 40 microns was also showcased at the exhibition.

Under the UNICEF supported project 'Swachchh, Swasth, Sundar Khardauri', implemented by CEE Himalaya in Nyay Panchayat Khardauri, Balrampur, UP, from February 11 to 17, a puppetry show was organized in 13 different locations of 10 villages (Chawayi Bujurg, Chawayi Khurd, Ishwapur, Gulwariya, Khardauri, Sahdeia, Vaibheet, Devaria, Galibpur, Visambherpur) in Nyay Panchayat Khardauri.

Over 2,300 people gathered to watch the show, which was organized with the support of Ujala Kathputlu and Nukkad Natak team, Sitapur. Conducted to sensitize the community towards the ill-effects of open defecation and highlight the importance of practicing Water Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH) activities in daily life, the entertainment-cum-awareness show also succeeded in circulating information on the diseases caused due to open defecation, people-friendly yet low-cost technology for toilet construction, and the key people to be contacted for toilet construction.

Towards accomplishing the project’s goal of an Open Defecation Free environment, CEE Himalaya has been conducting various awareness campaigns. Puppetry is being used as a medium to motivate people and communicate the importance of practicing WASH activities like the five steps of hand washing in critical times, socio-economic, cultural and environmental effects of open defecation, solid and liquid waste management, cleanliness in the kitchen and the courtyard, use of India Mark2 (IM2) hand pumps for drinking and cooking purposes, and safe disposal of 0-2 year old child's excreta.

As part of the World Wetlands Day (2nd February) celebrations, Sundarvan organised a birdwatching trip to Pariej on 8th February, wherein 25 participants of different age groups, and from different walks of life, were introduced to the wetlands and the living and non living components of wetlands, and were made aware of the threats to the wetlands.

The participants also got an opportunity of birdwatching at Pariej, which is located in Kheda district of Gujarat and is listed among the 98 wetlands of national conservation significance by the Government of India. They posed several questions on the wetlands and also tried their hand at bird photography. Resource materials including a chart on birds, printed information of the introduction given, and caps were distributed among the participants.

50 schools have been enrolled for the various activities initiated by CEE North, under the Children’s Forest Programme (CFP). The schools, which were selected based on criteria including their interest, plantation space and community linkage, were shortlisted by the CEE team in consultation with the Education Department.

The CEE team further conducted an orientation session in 30 schools deliberating on the importance of forests and how a mini forest could be created in their schools. A one-day long nature tour for schools was also planned, wherein, during February, over 350 students and teachers from 4 schools participated. The programme is supported by the UP Participatory Forest Management and Poverty Alleviation Project (UP-PFMPAP) and the Bareilly Forest Division, and gets financial assistance from JICA.

As part of Swapnilshala – the whole school development programme initiated at the Government Upper Primary School (GUPS) in Ghatal, Rajasthan - a two day visualization workshop was organized in February, wherein students, teachers, members of the school management committee of GUPS, Ghatal, and the villagers at Bhiwadi, participated.

While the first day session focused at initiating the thinking process among the participants on what they see as parameters for quality education, and its linkages with school infrastructure, the exposure visit to two schools on the second day helped them in visualizing the components required for quality education in a school. A discussion on the need for the observed practices and their relation to quality education was held, after which, the participants put forth their ideas for an ideal school through creative drawings, and shared a school development plan for their own school. They also listed the requirements for quality education at their school, including physical components, training and capacity building needs and curricular and co-curricular facilities like teaching-learning material, library etc.

During the CEE 30 Annual Meet at Ahmedabad, the CEE North dolphin project team and the Rural Programmes Group (RPG) interacted with each other over a half day orientation session. The RPG team shared their experiences of working with the rural community in different areas, while the field visits to Halwad office enabled the CEE North team to understand the concept of a sustainable campus, and get an overview of the activities done by community groups.

Subsequently, at the end of the month, the RPG team also visited the dolphin villages to conduct a rapid need assessment. Mr. Ayub Sherasiya and Mr. Samat Solanki visited Bahraich in Uttar Pradesh and Bettiah in Bihar, and attempted to understand the socio- economic conditions of the places, analyze the practices of farmers and fishermen in these regions, and identify the thrust areas for sustainable livelihood.

The team came up with recommendations and an action plan to be implemented in the dolphin villages. The key areas identified for intervention were water and sanitation, river bed farming, organic farming practices, preparedness of the community for flood and drought situations, alternate livelihood options, and skill-based trainings.

The Paryavaran Mitra Puraskar 2014 award function was held during the fun-filled Prakriti Mela 2015, at the Regional Institute of Education (RIE), Ajmer, from February 16-20, 2015. Prakriti Mela is the annual five-day national level event on environment education and education for sustainable development.

The award ceremony focused on showcasing the exemplary environmental work done by the schools, teachers and students, and attempted to be an apt platform for sharing experiences and learning from each other. The awards were conferred by Prof. V.K. Kakaria, Principal RIE, Dr. Digvijay Narayan Pandey, Principal, Demonstration School, RIE, Ajmer and Dr. K.K. Sharma, Retd. Principal, MDS University, Rajasthan.

CEE is the ENVIS centre on Environmental Education (EE). As an ENVIS centre, CEE caters to the information needs of environmental educators. Write to the CEE ENVIS Centre at [email protected]