GreenLine - Greener People, Greener World

21st December               Sacred Heart High School Eco Club is always a step ahead of the crowd.From the get go, they haven't been the backseat drivers but always on the forefront of the environmental movement. With mammoth amount of activities they have undertaken to conserve the environment for e.g the environment policy they have drafted out , recycling of papers etc., these committed young minds are indeed making a change in the world. Also, with the immense help and support from their Teacher Mrs.Nirmala Nair whose always ready to bend over backwards to promote go green movement in the School and go that extra mile!  At the start of the session, the Eco club members presented a Bracelet made of palm leaves to the GreenLine Team, followed by an informative presentation by Ritihka Kumar from the Eco club who participated in the field visit organized by TERI under the project SEARCH to the Vapi Based Daman Ganga Compan...

December 20, 2011 There are so many good things about going to a school where the children take keen interest in the programs that are conducted for them. We at GreenLine especially love it when the efforts of the students are such that they make us want to come over and over again. St. Paul's Convent High School, Dadar is one such school, where we wouldn't mind taking sessions time and again. The girls over here were an excited bunch the last time we came, and this time, their excitement was even more, owing to the fact that those girls who missed the session the last time joined us this time. The session began with the students conducting a five minute prayer service dedicated to the environment and all the people who make the world a tad greener everyday. Following this, there was a presentation made by the students on the waste audit activity that they had already undertaken. A fairly good presentation, Fr. Savio praised the girls for their unending enthusiasm in e...

17th December,2011    To moan and groan about the destruction of our planet is what we always do, but these young minds at St.Paul's are  ready to work towards improving the global environment! The session today had  around eighty eco-club members present. The session started with the students views regarding the present water scenario in Mumbai. The boys spoke about the water loss and other water related problems that one has to face in the recent times Following which there was a screening of GreenLine documentary , 'water'. The boys listed out the various concerns with water supply in Mumbai. Then, there was a presentation by Jessica which highlighted the statistics about water shortage and wastage. Next, the boys were given 'My School Saves Water Challenge' by Alden. The boys were all excited to carry out these activities in their Schools. All the best to boys of St.Paul's as they gear up to save water !

16th December 2011 “Children are the world's most valuable resource and its best hope for the future”                                                               – John F Kennedy Little did JFK know that when he uttered those brilliant words, that there would be children all over the city of Mumbai being just that- actual change makers and possibly the only reason Mumbai will see the light of a better day in future days to come. The reason we say this is because, besides the thousands of secondary school students who are part of the Green Schools, we are slowly but steadily also having a number of sessions with children from younger classes. We earlier did a mixed session for the b...

March 14, 2011 Imagine you are a painter and have a nice clean canvas in front of you, and your client has asked for a painting depicting Nature at her best. So you decide different color schemes-- no matter how you look at it, you know right form the start that greens, browns and hues of blues are going to be the primary colors to use. Then you think of different elements in the painting, and you will most probably have imagined a stream, lots and lots of trees and mountainsides and cear blue skies. You would also perhaps depict man living his everyday life, thankful to be in the place he is, going about doing his own thing.   That's exactly how Lonavla is- or at least was until maybe the last decade or so. A beautiful canvas of nature at its best, bountifully blessed with mountain tops and valleys, lakes and greenery as far as the eye could look. With epic beauty of such proportions, it is easy to realize that human habitation slowly,  but surely started taking over the ...

14 th  December, 2011    It was a chilly Thursday morning as we headed to Auxilium High School, Lonavla a new participant in the Green Schools Campaign. As we browsed through the school, we noticed that this school was by far the cleanest school we’ve visited with hardly any litter around the campus. There were about 300 students present for the session accompanied with their teachers and Principal Sr. Suzan.              The first session was with the decorous and vibrant girls from Class 7 th .  These girls were receptive from the start and were willing to make a difference to make Planet Earth a better place to live in. There was a screening of the GreenLine Movie, ‘Planet Earth’, following which, there was a short discussion on the different issues reflected in the movie.  The girls answered all the questions adeptly and also gave in their inputs as to how one could go about conserving the environment ,so far as to even c...

13th December 2011               Team GreenLine had its second session at St. Andrew's High School, Bandra today. The Std. IX boys attended the session. They were one excited lot, with oodles of energy! The session commenced with Fr. Savio explaining the Green Schools Campaign to the students – the previous session had been attended by Std. X and hence this group was new to the Campaign.  He then moved on to the topic for our current session – 'Water' – and engaged the boys in a short discussion on this issue.                                                                                                            Next, there was the screening of the GreenLine documentary on 'Wat...

December 9, 2011  Friday morning saw us heading to St. Anthony's High School Versova, for its first session in this year's Green School's Campaign. The session began with Father Savio introducing the team to the students and the concept of the campaign, and also easing them into the idea of how saving the environment and protecting that which provides life to us, is a good idea. The students here were very receptive to the ideas and suggestions that we made, and it was good to see the level of involvement that these students wanted to show! After the introduction, the children watched with keen interest the documentary on Water, followed by careful scrutiny of the information that Jessica provided for the water statistics of the city of Mumbai. This was then followed by an excited bunch of students getting all set to do all of the water activities that Alden told the students they had to complete in order to be a real cool school!

 10th December 2011            A warm welcome aboard to St. Pius X  as they join in the Green Schools Campaign for the year! This school is amidst a clean neighborhood indeed and the Piusites are certainly a boisterous bunch.             Today was our first session with the Piusites. Alden gave a brief introduction about the Green Schools Campaign. He asked them what was their take on the current issues regarding the environment and received some ingenious answers. They said that we are destroying our home, 'Earth' but there are number of ways to take care of it but the change starts with each one of us!                                                                                        ...

With each school that our team covers in the Green Schools Campaign, we realize one thing: We are witness to the growth of a number of possible environmentalists all over, children who understand  that the environment is not something external but something that encompasses us all, each and every day. With the answers they provide and the questions they pose, it really is heartening to see that at least in the younger generations of our population, there are a lot more who believe that Mother Earth is in need of urgent care. One such School that we found no different from this growing idea is Fort Convent High School, Colaba, and as always it was great to be here for a session. The girls of this school are an enthusiastic bunch-- They had quick answers for almost all of the questions  we asked them and were also unlike most of us adults, quick to accept that we are wasteful, at least when we are speaking about water! We showed the students a documentary clip on water and...

7 th December 2011 South Bombay has a charm of its own. Not only does it boast of its architectural grandeur, but it can also be proud of its natural beauty. Unfortunately, this is rapidly changing. While once that part of Bombay greeted you with its majestic trees and pretty gardens, today it assaults you with garbage strewn sidewalks and suffocating vehicular pollution. No wonder then, that the residents of this area are visibly upset. And not just the adults, even the children are angry that their environment has been so badly destroyed. And yes, they want to put things right. This eagerness to better the environment was more than visible during our first session at St. Anne’s High School, Colaba this afternoon. The 80 or more girls who were present for the session were extremely vocal in their resolve to do all it takes to turn the tide, to stop any further destruction of nature, to put back a smile on the face of Mother Earth. Being our introductory session at this school, we ...

7 th December 2011               The nature club from St.Anne’s is indeed an amazing one and are already doing their bit to make their school more eco-friendly one. Alden started out the session by asking the students what efforts were taken up by them as a Nature Club since the previous session. The club members listed out number of activities they have carried out to promote the green movement in their school ( for e.g. selling cloth bags on the day of  Open House and buying Coffee mugs for their teachers so as to prevent them from using paper/plastic cups, visiting the BNHS and Clean up Drive.etc ).                       Following this, the GreenLine documentary ‘Value Water’ was shown to the children. The children spoke about the all the issues that were brought up in the movie and Jessica gave a detailed presentation regarding these issues. The children came up with various ways...

Dominic Savio, Andheri December 1, 2011                                Dominic Savio High School is located around ten minutes from Andheri Station but it took us Forty five minutes due to the bustling traffic. But once we arrived at Dominic Savio High School, the distressing experience was a worthwhile one.               The boys from Dominic Savio gave an impressive presentation on the waste auditing for their school, their various observations and how they intend to deal with the waste in the future.                          We started the session asking the boys as to what is their take on water. The boys answered that water sustains life and is one of the most important resource on the planet. We screened a GreenLine Movie ‘Water’ following which the boys listed out difficulties surrounding wate...

30 November 2011 Right outside Sion Railway Station is located the Our Lady of Good Counsel School. One would never ever know there is a school here if not for the hordes of school students once the school bell has rung. For one, it's outside one of the city's most crowded stations, and then there is the intersection that it is at, with a traffic from both the Central and the Western Suburbs, and a skywalk barely five meters outside its gate! Phew! From an outsider's point of view, it would be difficult to understand, that inside it is a whole different world. One can barely hear any of the noise that the crowds outside make, yet there is commotion and excitement all around. Inside, the students are an equally noisy bunch, but that is like any other school anywhere in the world. Such a batch of students is what forms the Nature Club of OLGC School, Sion. Enthusiasm and answers through out is what we always get when we come for the GreenLine session over here. The stud...

1st December, 2011             The nature club from Auxilium High School at Wadala has around 100 members and this is indeed double the amount of members that we usually find in any school. Our second session here began with a presentation from the girls on the Waste Audit that they had conducted, and suggestions on how they would do their best to reduce waste on their part.  It was great to see the girls in Auxilium Wadala wanted to introduce certain changes in their lifestyles to make their school more eco-friendly. The GreenLine team added in a few more ideas that the girls could take up and become a zero garbage school.  We then moved on to the topic of ‘Value Water’. The girls were shown a GreenLine documentary on the issues concerning water in Mumbai. After watching the movie, the girls gave in their inputs that Water is our lifeline and  we must save water today so that it will be available to us in the future.  Next, Jes...