The workshop for Teachers’ Training onYoung Reporters for Environment - Litterless Campaign 2018 took place at Sachdeva Global School in Dwarka, New Delhi. The session was aimed at orienting the teachers of participating schools about the YRE Litterless Campaign 2018. The workshop began with introducing the partner organizations namely Centre for Environment Education (India), Foundation for Environmental Education (Denmark), SAYEN (South Asia Youth Environment Network) and Wrigley Company Foundation.

Over 100 schools from all across India have signed up for the YRE – 2018 Litterless Campaign.

The teachers were then given a set of tasks related to the issue of waste and littering behavior. The tasks were aimed for teachers to inculcate a deeper understanding of the issue among the students in their respective schools. Since the campaign deals with environmental journalism, the teachers were also oriented about the basics of how the knowledge of reporting an issue, proposing feasible solutions, documenting the work and disseminating information can be done by the students in order to raise awareness and take a stand to protect the environment. The entries in the campaign can be given in the form of a photograph, article or a video which can be used to raise awareness, report an issue or propose a solution.

The teachers were also shown the winning entries of the previous campaign to give an overall idea of how the entries are judged nationally as well as internationally. In the concluding part, the teachers were oriented about the rules of the campaign and acceptable formats of the entries which are to be submitted by the students.

The workshop is expected to help the teachers of participating schools in the following way:-

1. It will help brainstorming with the students regarding the issue of waste and littering behavior.

2. The teachers can teach the students how to analyze and report an environmental issue in different forms across different media platforms.

3. It will help the teachers and students know about the importance of journalism in the field of environmental sustainability.

4. The school will have a chance to represent the steps taken by the management and the students in the field of waste management or environmental sustainability on an international platform like SAYEN.

Van Mahotsav is an annual tree-planting festival in India, celebrated in the first week of July every year. This movement was initiated in the year 1950 by India’s then Union Minister for Agriculture, Kulapati Dr. K.M. Munshi.

Van Mahotsav means ‘the festival of forest’ and this festival spreads the awareness among people and portrays the need of planting of trees, as all life directly or indirectly owes its existence to trees. This festival has gained immense national importance and every year, millions of saplings are planted all across India in observation of Van Mahotsav week.

To spread awareness about the importance of trees, students of class II-C conducted the morning assembly on “Trees for life: Celebrating Van Mahotsav” on 10 July 2018. The students used slogans and props to tell us how trees play an important role in our life. Students emphasized upon the importance of planting trees and encouraged everybody present there to do the same. Students also explained that trees are one of the best ways to prevent global warming and reduce pollution.

Class II presented catchy slogans and also recited a poem “DHARTI KI BAS YAHI PUKAR… PEDH LAGAO BARAMBAR” to explain the importance of planting trees. All the students of class II C participated in the assembly and spoke upon the need of preventing the cutting down of trees and creating more forests.