SDG Celebration week
SDG & Environment: Role of Youth
22nd September 2021
As a part of the Global Week to #Act4SDGs, we are aiming to drive collective action, mobilizing youth from different disciplines to express their views on Sustainable Development Goals and Environment. Held during the high- level week of United Nations General Assembly, this year’s mobilization will also drive action around the Food Systems Summit, pre-COP in Milan, and keep up momentum in the lead up to COP 26 in Glasgow.
Gen Z meets Gen ALPHA
Interactive session on International Youth day 12th August 2021
With lots of energy, representatives of Generation Z and Generation Alpha interacted about burning environmental issues. 150+ participants witnessed this online event. Both the generation raised their voice for brighter future, cleaner future for mother NATURE.
Webinar on Careers in Environment – If you can DREAM it, you can DO it.
10th August 2021
On 10th August, 2021, Paryavaran Mitra & Green Catalyst conducted a Webinar on Careers in Environment through the medium of Instagram Live. The Speaker was Mahesh Pandya and the Green Catalyst member, Nithyaashree P Chettiar was the Host.
The Environmental field has a lot of opportunities for the future, whether it is in the private sector or the public sector. Understanding the socio-economic impact of our activities is crucial. Mitigation and adaptation are both important methods of controlling climate change. According to the Constitution’s Article 15, it is every citizen’s duty to protect our environment.
Our speaker shared with us his experiences as an Environmentalist as a way of guiding the Youth for a brighter future & highlighted the areas in which they should focus for a brighter future. A number of questions were asked by the audience.
Check our IGTV for watching the session. https://www.instagram.com/p/CSZKfcuFIVp/
Event: Environmental awareness program at Brighton English Primary School
Date: 7th December 2019
Venue: Brighton English Primary School
Event description:
Green Catalyst conducted an environmental awareness program at Brighton English Primary School. Less than 500m from their school, Pirana landfill served as the backdrop for an awareness session with 6th, 7th and 8th grade students of Brighton English Primary School. Green Catalyst Nisha started the session with discussion on various aspects of environment. Her friendly and warm tone for the discussion helped the children feel comfortable to participate and share their thoughts with her. She created a good bond and rapport with children by speaking to them as equals. The discussion was generative and interactive; allow the children to surface what they already know about their environment and the various issues they face due to living so close to the landfill site. She says, “To breathe clean air is everyone’s birth right, which is even protected by the constitution. These students are not fighting for their right because they do not have the necessary education. We are inspired by the children who doing research about their community and we want to help by joining them as an awareness partner.”
A group of children who have been working with Paryavaran Mitra shared their learning about legal awareness. They spoke about the Right To Information and asked students present what questions they had related to the garbage mountains. Another group that has been conducting interviews, shared about the history of the area and the problems faced by people living there. Two of the students even got an opportunity to go to Delhi for a conference on Human Rights through Paryavaran Mitra. As this was just an introductory session, more consistent efforts are required to start a movement from the school and then move into the community.
Participation in United Nations climate change conferences (UNFCCC)
Conference of the Parties (COP) to United Nations climate change conferences (UNFCCC) are global forum for discussions on climate change matters which are normally held every year at host country’s location. Paryavaran Mitra (Janvikas) is admitted by the Conference of the Parties (COP) as observer organizations to the UNFCCC process in 2012 and has been attending COP since then. We have also participated as speaker at various side events at COP. In 2018, we had the opportunity to speak in India pavilion in COP24 on “Capacity building for climate change” held at Katowice, Poland.
In 2019, 25th session of the conference took place at Madrid, Spain from 2nd to 13th December 2019 under the Presidency of the Government of Chile and with logistical support from the Government of Spain. This year also Mr. Mahesh Pandya participated at COP25 and was speaker at Side-Event on “Sharing of Best Practices in Urban Development” that was held in India Pavilion organized by Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate change (MOEFCC). He spoke about about “Green Catalyst Program” that was initiated by Paryavaran Mitra and addresses urgent need to educate youth to protect environment.
Our environment is in need of urgent attention before it is too late and the Green Catalyst program is focused on doing just that. Harnessing the power of the youth – the initiative focuses on generating awareness among citizens and helping them understand what they can do to protect their environment. Working with youth from different backgrounds – the Green Catalyst program provides both theoretical knowledge and on ground experience to equip the youth to become true changemakers for the environment.
Date: 3rd October, 2019
Venue: Moriaya Village, Ahmedabad
Event Description:
A program was organized by Centre for Environmental Education (CEE) at Moriaya Village of Ahmedabad under its “Shrujal project” in which 150 representatives of 11 nearby villages participated. In this program, Green Catalyst performed a skit on Beat Plastic pollution. The objective of the skit was to create awareness among villagers about the ill effects of plastic on human being, animals, and environment.
Green Catalyst Management: Nisha Rajput
Green Catalyst Involved: Priyanka Gajabe, Khyati Patel, Mahesh Singh, Pankaj Sharma, Pinal Patel, and Pritesh Thakar.
Date: 26th September 2019
Venue: Lapkaman Primary School, Ahmedabad
Event Description:
An environmental awareness program was organized in primary school at Lapkaman village situated in Kalol, Ahmedabad on 26th November 2019. The program started at 10 a.m. with introduction of Green Catalyst and its activities. Then a short presentation on various aspects of environment and importance of water and trees was done. After that a skit was performed on concerns of ozone depletion by Green Catalyst team. Lastly question and answer session was done with students on environmental issues. Students were very interactive and gave good response. The program ended with singing environmental song with the students.
Green Catalyst Management: Aarti Joshi
Green Catalyst Involved: Aarti, Pinal, Pritesh, Pankaj, and Vijay
Date: 16 th September 2019
Venue: Jodhpur Shala-1, Ahmedabad
Theme:
The International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer is celebrated every year on 16 September across the globe. The Montreal Protocol, under which ozone day is celebrated, has been dubbed the world’s most successful environmental agreement. The Treaty is slowly but surely reversing the damage caused to the ozone layer by industrial gases.
On the occasion of Ozone day, Citelum India Pvt. Ltd, Ahmedabad organized awareness program at Jodhpur Prathamik Shala-1. Green Catalyst performed many activities at the school to create awareness in students about Ozone depletion and other environmental issues. Around 100 students from class 1 to 7 participated in the event.
Event Description:
Citelum India Pvt. Ltd had organized plantation in the School so a Mime act was performed by Green Catalyst to demonstrate importance of plants to the students. The act gave message of importance of trees in human life in very simple way.
Then one of GC, Arti gave introduction about Ozone layer and how it is important for us. She also asked questions to students about environment and interacted with them about ozone layer depletion. Then a skit was performed by GC team on importance of ozone and what is causing depletion of ozone.
Then “Waste to Wow’ activity was done by GC Sneha by showing students how to make bags, penstand, and envelope from newspaper. The objective of this activity was to ignite the bright minds of children enhancing their knowledge to reuse products of the trash. At the end of the session, a movie was shown to the students on plastic and its effects on environment. Then GCs gave more understanding about the issue to the students by interacting with them and asking questions.
Green Catalyst Management: Sneha, Arti, Shivani and Unnati
Green Catalyst Involved: Kabir, Drashti, Rucha, Pinal, Pritesh, Sneha, Arti, Shivani, and Unnati
A week long collection event was organized at the Department of Social work with the support fromfaculty member Ms. Jigna Thakkar and HOD Prof. Mukesh Khatik. Constant efforts were made to spreadawareness in the surrounding areas that covered other departments.