Kochi: The Suchitwa Mission is tying up with the education department to provide schoolchildren with the first-hand experience in solid waste management and organic farming. “The plan is to hold a three-day camp in select schools in every district this summer,” said C.V. Joy, director (operations). “Their activities include visiting houses in the locality collecting plastic bottles. The same will be handed over to certified scrap dealers from whom they will know how they used to dispose of such wastes.”
There will be at least two camps in every block panchayat with each one having a maximum of 60 students of Class 8, 9 and 11 of government and aided schools. They will visit organic agricultural farms and interact with their owners.
“The aim is to enable them to get a first-hand experience on various techniques of organic farming. The students themselves will have to plant saplings and do the primary things in cultivation,” the officer said. Interestingly, the three-day camps have been named ‘Mango, Coconut, Jackfruit’ to highlight the need to grow traditional fruits which are rich in vitamins.
“People are now neglecting the traditional fruits easily available in our land. Foods will be prepared with these fruits on all three days and served them. They will be asked to collect food wastes and make ring compost, pot compost and bio-bins and to implement the same at home to promote effective disposal of wastes at source,” he said. The faculty workshop for the three-day event in every block panchayat will be held on April 10 while the summer camps will be in May first week across the state.
