As part of the World Water Day celebrations, CEE North organized week long awareness rallies with Children’s Forest Programme (CFP) schools. Students from all grades; teachers and community representatives participated in this rally. Total 782 students and 32 teachers from 6 CFP and Paryavaran Mitra schools of Lucknow took part in these rallies. Officials from UP Forest Department Mr. T.P. Dubey and Mr. Asthana flagged of the rallies and motivated students to take action towards saving water and saving trees.

CEE North organized a day-long module linking basic science concepts to environment, for a group of non-science teachers on February 27 at the District Institute of Education and Training (DIET), Faizabad. The sessions were conducted by Mr. Neeraj Pal, Project Officer and the scientific concepts were supported with examples from our day-to-day life e.g. evaporation, transpiration in plants, condensation and precipitation etc. Teachers also ‘Explored a Tree’ as part of the session on using outdoor for effective teaching-learning of science. Teachers shared their views that they never realized that so many aspects could be explained to students with a single tree in the school campus.

A film was screened to orient the teachers on the Paryavaran Mitra Programme and also to discuss their role in it. The programme is being implemented in Faizabad district with the help of DIET Faizabad. More than 80 teachers attended the training session.

CEE North, in collaboration with Uttar Pradesh Participatory Forest Management and Poverty Alleviation Project (UPPFMPAP), Lucknow celebrated World Forestry Day event in three schools of Lucknow viz. City Montessori School, Station Road; Poorva Madhyamik Vidyalaya (PMV), Uttar Dhauna; and Saraswati Shishu Mandir. More than 350 students and teachers participated in these events.

Senior Officials from UPPFMPAP planted saplings in each school and interacted with students. They briefed them about the importance of trees and forests for human survival and urged students to play a key role in their conservation. Schools also took out rallies in their nearby communities with messages on the importance of forests and its conservation. Students of the schools also presented a puppet show which was based on importance of water and forests.

CEE North, has joined hands with DLA Group of Publications by signing an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) under its Paryavaran Mitra initiative. Under the association, CEE as a knowledge partner, will contribute one-page fortnightly features articles on environmental issues and concerns for the DLA newspaper.

As part of this partnership, the first article was published on World Water Day focusing on the conservation of water. Each article focuses on motivating readers to take handprint actions. CEE has built in feedback mechanism as well to get readers inputs and suggestions.