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Protecting the environment through the hands of children: interacting child clubs

Sometimes the youth clubs we have initiated in our project schools exchange ideas or meet for sports competitions. The best ideas can come from this.

Ideas become more when they are shared

After a visit to Piple, Chitwan, southern Nepal, the girls and boys from the neighboring Thakaltar were deeply impressed. The village of Piple and its paths were so much cleaner than theirs!

So one child club sat down with the other. The people from Piple presented their solutions for a clean village. And the youth from Thakaltar asked a lot of questions.

Back in Thakaltar, the plan was quickly established. They too wanted a clean village.

At the next meeting, the young people gave our team a list of things they needed for the action. Large cement rings as collecting containers, brushes and paints, posters and pens. We’d be happy to do that for you.

Modern life shouldn’t be made of plastic

Not far from the village, a road leads over the hills, which is used more and more.

More and more goods are being delivered to the settlements and villages in the rather remote forest area. This brings with it a visible increase in packaging waste. Most people just toss the packaging into the landscape where they walk and stand. In the past this was not a big problem with more organic waste, now there are tons of plastic and metal cans scattered all over the village. Even cattle chew plastic.

The children and young people had a lot of fun painted and labeled the cement rings: “Don’t throw your garbage in the area, keep the area clean!”

Then they were set up in different places in the village. But that alone does not simply change the habits of the villagers. The youth knew that, as those from Piple had already said.

Whoever takes responsibility can also demand it

So they split up into groups and went door to door in the village. There they explained to the surprised parents and neighbors how to separate their organic and inorganic waste in the future and where to throw it away in the future.

In addition: Anyone who continues to dispose of garbage on the paths or in the countryside will have to pay a small “penalty fee” to the Child Club from now on – for further environmental protection projects. So the serious announcement. Then they swarmed out and picked up whatever rubbish they could find.

They actually established waste separation in their village. Now the inorganic garbage is collected centrally and transported to rubbish dumps, the organic garbage is piled up on compost heaps and used for fertilization. The adults take part.

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