The Tigers class (5^th graders) from Transition School made two trips in February to Upasana Design Studio. The purpose of the visits was to design logos for cloth bags that could be used in the campaign to clean up the litter in Auroville on the 28^th February (Auroville’s birthday).

On the first occasion, Uma introduced the Small Steps presentation, which was followed by a lively discussion with the students, who made many suggestions on how the bags could be distributed. One of their points was that it would be interesting to see children using the bag.

After the introduction and a tour around Upasana, there was a break for juice and snacks. Then the Tigers got to work, drawing designs for the bags, and painting them with fabric paints. The designs all bore the logo Life Litter Free, and the children incorporated that into their personal designs.

On the second visit, we completed the task of painting the bags. The highlight was when we shared the stories the children had written to demonstrate how plastic could cause environmental disasters – some tales had happy endings, and some didn’t. The children really enjoyed reading the stories that they had written in groups out loud to the various visitors at the Upasana tea tables. The listeners appreciated the children’s courage and creativity.

A follow-up of these visits could be that the Tigers give presentations to children in other schools in the area. This is the second year that the Tigers have had an environmental program, and they are extremely aware of the issues the world and particularly our part of it face today. They are committed to make changes in their lives and in the community around them.

Environment Stories

Once upon a time there were three friends who decided to stop pollution. The youngest was Kalamb, then Jack and Mick who were twins. Jack and Mick’s pets had both died from eating plastic and Kalamb’s pet cat also died because it breathed in too much smoke when the villagers were burning plastic. They were all very angry and they decided to make a speech to stop pollution. Their first speech would take place in New Delhi on the 18th April 2009. 

The speech said: Ladies and gentlemen, people are polluting too much, and animals, trees and people are dying. If the world goes on like this, Earth won’t be a good place to live. Our pets have died because of plastic. Would you help to make this world a better place or would you use plastic bags for shopping instead of Small Steps bags?

The speech was a big hit and they were asked to do it again all over the world. They quickly became rich and forgot all about the speech to stop plastic bags. They even started donating money to plastic bags. A few years passed and they were still donating money to plastic, when Jack remembered their task to stop plastic bags. Jack reminded them, and they all stopped donating money to plastic bags. Now that they were rich, they had a lot more power and it was a lot easier to stop plastic bags. After a long fight to stop plastic, they finally win and people stop using plastic bags, and start using Small Steps. Kalamb, Jack and Nick donate all their money to Small Steps. Now they are poor but it does not matter, since they did a great help to the world.

PLASTIC

Once upon a time there were some tourists having a picnic by the lake. After they finished, they threw all their plastic wrappers in the lake. The wrappers had some crumbs. A fish came and nibbled the crumbs. While he was nibbling, he swallowed some plastic. The fish started to choke and died. Later, a bigger fish came to eat the dead fish. The bigger fish started to struggle because of the plastic in his stomach. A seagull came and swallowed the fish. The seagull had an instant belly ache and went to a rock to spit out the fish. The seagull didn’t realize that there was a wildcat hiding behind the rock. The cat jumped and ate the seagull. The cat felt woozy because he ate the seagull. The cat fell into the water and drowned. A piranha ate the cat and the same tourist that threw the plastic was fishing and caught the piranha that ate the cat.  The tourist brought the fish home and fried it. Since it was fried, the plastic melted into the piranha. The tourist ate the fish and got very sick and he went to the hospital and was saved by the doctors.

Moral: Do not throw plastic because it will come back to you.

GARBAGE RUSH

One day in Bangalore a poor family lived in a small house. Around it, there was lots and lots of plastic. Every day people dump their waste next to the house.

The plastic grew and grew and the poor family couldn’t even see their own house! Other people didn’t even realize there was a house because the house was fully covered with plastic waste. The poor family tried to clean all the plastic but they couldn’t do it, so they gave up. The place they lived in was dirty, the current had been cut and they had no water. One day, the current cable had electricity passing through, which touched a metal bar.   A fire started and burned the house. The family were all burned except the baby, who lived. The baby tried to come out and it reached the door. The people who were watching were so happy because the baby survived, but then suddenly the house collapsed and the baby died.

FREE FROM PLASTIC (FFP)

Once upon a time there lived a couple in New York. This couple was very rich, but they wanted to use all their money to do something that would help the whole world. They went all over the world and everything was well kept and safe, except in India. They didn’t know how India was, so they decided to go to India. After landing in Chennai Airport, they discovered that India was polluted. They were thinking up a plot.

They went all over India, and they saw animals eating plastic, and they saw most of the things made out of plastic. They had to do something! They talked to all the people in India and found that the plastic was going to be sold all over the world. They had to stop this. Suddenly they had an idea. Maybe they could make some cloth bags for free and give them to all the States in India and stop using plastic. They could make a group to clean the streets every week called the Free From Plastic (FFP). They could make campaigns in all the States, and that’s what they did. Soon they used all their money, but still it came back, and that’s how their lives continue.

A BOY

In a village called Bommayapalayam there lived a boy. He did not have parents and he did not have a home. He lived on a platform with all the plastic and he did not have food. For one day’s worth of food he needed to be a beggar, but nobody gave him money or food because he lived with the waste plastic. That’s why nobody helped him. He didn’t have good clothes to wear. He didn’t even have a name to call. Everyone called him a beggar. He did not like the way people called him, so one day he decided to collect all the plastic and papers and he gave it to the people who collect the garbage. If he did that for one day, at least he could get eight or nine rupees. He could by idli for it. For one week the boy helped to clean the street and eventually the whole village was clean, without plastic. Everyone in the village appreciated him and some people gave him money, some gave cloth and some gave food.   Some of them even gave the boy work to do. At last the village people gave the boy a name. Now his name is Hari.

PLASTIC IS NO GOOD!

Plastic is not good for the Earth. We’ll give you an example of what happened to one small child. 

One day a young girl was playing with her friends on the road. She found a plastic bag on the road and she put it on over her head and tied it and pretended to be a ghost. She went, “Oooh!” to her friends and they laughed. When she tried to take the plastic bag off, it didn’t come off. Then her friends tried to take it off but instead they tightened it and it went in her skin. She started crying because of the pain. Her friends brought her to her parents. Her parents rushed to the hospital with her. On the way, there was traffic light and it was red so they stopped quickly. When they stopped, the plastic bag went deeper in her neck. She was tragically trying to breathe and her mother freaked out. When they arrived at the hospital, they went straight to the Doctor. The Doctor thought that the best thing to do was surgery. There was only five percent chance that she would survive. They did the surgery and luckily she survived, but her neck had a big stitch on it. It was better than not living.

2640

Once upon a time in 2640 the skyscrapers were plunging up into space and nuclear weapons were being tested in every corner of the world…..but plastic was creating the most havoc! Fumes here and there! It was like a haphazard war! You had to wear a gas mask. The street was covered with filth. Abandoned cities were being turned into landfills. Most animals were extinct or deformed. Scientists were trying to find a way to clean it all up and turn it all into beautiful, happy things. None of them were smart enough…..except…. Einstein the 3rd. One scientist accidentally turned them into evil living plastic. They were very despicable, they especially despised babies. They all tried to kill Einstein the 3rd, but they made a mistake, because Einstein always managed to invent the solution. It was a ray gun. Lasers and bullets were flying everywhere and in the end all the world was beautiful but Einstein accidentally shot one last bullet and it shot the electricity generator and…………BOOM! The world was gone.