International students help Kalliyoor manage waste

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As many as 17 schools in Kalliyoor panchayat have adopted the habit of waste segregation and are trying to minimize the use of plastic thanks to a group of international students who initiated a project called Eco-Friendly Kalliyoor. Thirteen students from 10 countries who make up the 2014 batch of Kanthari International – a school which equips its students with skills to start their own social movements– came up with the concept as they wanted to do something in their current area of residence.
“The international students – who are acquiring skills to fundraise, manage events and talk to the press – decided to get a hands-on experience with this project. Earlier on, we understood that the schools alone may not be able to pull this off and so we partnered with Navajyothi Residents’ Association, Peringammala, to carry out the project,” said Nelson Apochi Owoicho, a former school teacher from Nigeria.
Back home, Lillian Aero Olok, from Uganda, helps women in abusive relationships to earn an income by creating jewellery out of paper. Lillian spent some time with the students at Kalliyoor and taught them to make crafts from plastic waste. On World Environmental Health Day, September 26, school students – who had made the best “trash to art” – were given gifts. The students also carried out periodical waste management drives that include providing colour-coded dustbins and door-to-door campaign to promote waste-segregation.
“The international students had developed a curriculum and created videos on waste segregation, protecting the waters of nearby Vellayani Lake. This had helped our students retain the act of cleanliness in their memory and we have been following the example ever since. Littering has been comparatively reduced and the ‘trash to art’ projects are on display to inspire a new crop of students,” said Joe Jagadish, Principal, Dr GR Public School, Neyyattinkara.
The international students are worried that there is a chance that the residents and schools might fall back to their old ways and so they are keeping the project alive by generating periodic online content on Wordpress, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and Instagram .
Punnamoodu Higher Secondary School, Venganoor Government Model Higher Secondary School, Venganoor Boys High School, Venganoor Girls High School, Tolstoy Public school, Santhivila Trinity English and Malayalam High school, Ayyankali Sports School are among the schools that continue to practice waste segregation as part of the campaign.