We are delighted to share a blog written by student Kriti Johri from M.CT.M Chidambaram Chettyar International School, who is part of a team delivering a Global Goals project for the 2019-20 Global Goals Competition.
Their project is among over 957 social action projects currently running as part of the GSL movement and we are excited to be supporting them to design and lead positive social change in their community.
The experience is invigorating to the mind and soul, and enables us to guide and aid our community.
Project Overview
Everyday, we cross paths with strangers we do not know. They may look like us, behave like us, but they may not be as privileged. They may not have the awareness, the education, the resources that we have. Our project is to better the life of those less fortunate and those around us. We aim for the amelioration of all life forms.
Our community requires awareness and action on the tribulations our ecosystem faces. It is in dire need of reduction in pollution emissions, increased awareness on the waste hierarchy and betterment of the quality of life for all animals. We’ve seen polluted water bodies, innocent dying animals, disregard for community health, immaculate wastage. We know there are those who don’t deserve to suffer. Chennai has been deemed India’s health capital, but that does not stop people in rural areas dying of contaminated water, or save animals that have been abused on the streets. It does not save the workers exploited in the waste industry who are poisoned by the toxic waste around them. That is why we are so passionate about these causes. Not only to follow our moral ethics, but to sleep at night knowing we’ve made it a little safer for our rural communities.
Our project involves multiple events in order to improve the situation. Newspaper drives, educational seminars, creative representations of awareness (such as a song), social media campaigns, volunteering at local organisations and devising ways to reduce the repercussions of polluted bodies and emissions.
Our Journey
The competition has certainly brought out significant skills in us. We’ve all learned to be practical and open to interpretation on our creative liberties. We are still developing ways to communicate better not only amongst ourselves but with our audiences too.
There have definitely been some struggles and barriers that were difficult to overcome. Originally our audience reach was too small, and we were unable to truly connect and captivate audiences. We were also struggling to make the time or organize large events. We all learned things about ourselves during this. Our shortcomings, our strengths. We all were hit with the idea that, when the going gets tough, the tough gets going. We found it in ourselves to truly reflect instead of regret. We constantly reflected on what we could do better every time we take action.
Our solutions are simple. We know now that, to increase audiences, we need to have a following. So, we created a social media page. We are working on our communication with audiences by asking them what they want us to do better, and targeting specific age groups depending on the event. We are now trying to be more practical and critical of our brainstorms, so that we can ensure our best performance.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9rWiNLHhga/
The Next Chapter
We truly recommend others our age to participate. It is enlightening and fulfilling to see your community and environment improve, even in the smallest of ways. We all agree that it is thrilling to see yourself and other teams succeed in helping a good cause! Though it may see tiresome and unneeded, it really is for the greater good.
“With great power comes a great responsibility.” That power given to us is privilege. We are solely responsible for making sure that our community gets to experience true improvement in the quality of life. To be the underprivileged people’s wings when then they can’t fly. That could lead to major changes in not only their lives, but ours too. We are empowering everyone in the city to rise to the occasion, to help one another out. So, please. Take a call. Do you want to see India become the base of equality?
The 2019-20 GSL Global Goals Competition is now open and runs until June 2020. If you belong to one of the 700+ teams of students currently delivering a social action project as part of the competition we would love to hear from you and feature your blog and project photos on our website to inspire others.
