News

Lake Area Middle School reports

on recent service work

Hello!   This is Cali from Lake Area Middle

in New Orleans. I just wanted to update you

on some of our projects we are participating in.  

As most schools do, we are participating in

The Second Harvesters Food Bank's food drive. Many schools around the state collect canned food to be donated to the homeless shelters

and such.

We are also in the Builders Club. This is an organization that was set up for students to perform community services around school

and the neighborhood. For instance, this

coming Saturday, we plan to paint the bathroom and other various rooms in the school. It is the students choice, and surprisingly, a lot of students were eager to sign up.                                                                             That all,                                                                      Cali M. 

Students work together to provide technology!

The Roots & Shoots group of the Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School in Orleans, Massachusetts, USA and their sister-school, the Dr. Herman Wrice Youth Empowerment Village Community Center in Arusha, Tanzania are working together to provide Internet access to the Community Center students. 

Community members in Arusha hand crafted artwork that the Charter School students have agreed to sell at craft-fairs in the United States during the holiday season in order to raise the funds necessary to purchase the Internet connection. 

The Internet connection will help the sister-school pair better communicate and also will be used as an educational resource at the Community Center.  Both schools are excited about this joint endeavor!  

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Carnival Day with the Little Eco Friends!

Recently the Little Eco Friends organized a series of painting and writing competitions for children in celebration of India's Children's Day on Nov. 14th. 

They also participated in Carnival Day where they had a booth on waste management. "We had 2 people on stilts to attract attention of children towards messages on waste management," say the Eco Friends. "We had some related fun dance. We had put up lot of posters. We have developed some local language (Hindi) songs on the subject." They are also working on preparing a street play on waste management.

And, during the last week of November they will have a panel discussion at their school with leading environmentalists. They hope the discussion will help create an "environment for the environment of the future". In addition they have started collecting old clothes which shall be stitched to make cloth bags.  The Little Eco Friends hope these bags will be used in place of plastics.

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Passion to Action in New Orleans!

Recently, a group of students from Lake Area Middle School participated in an interactive One World Youth Project workshop focusing on how to turn one's passion into positive action. 

The students came up with great, creative ideas.  They talked about a wide-range of subjects everything from the importance of teaching the public about the benefits of R&B music to using dance and singing as a way to make difference in the local community.  Students also learned more about their sister-school in Mongolia! They are even considering building a 'ger' (a type of housing structure common in Mongolia)! 

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Making a difference through art in Uganda!

On 28th November 2004 the Kyanyawara Children Environmental Project held a competition on the environment with the theme, 'Let us save our Environment'.

"I was so happy to do it," explains youth group leader, Margaret. "It gave me more opportunity to understand what my groups are and how determind they can be."

Over three hundred people attended the event!  The whole audience was inspired by watching the children's way of expressing their feelings towards the environment.

"I hope this will make a huge difference in people's actions especially to chimpanzees," says Margaret.

To learn more about the Kyanyawara Children Environmental Project click here

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Project Ambassador, Ashima, founds her own non-governmental organization!

By, Ashima

Project Ambassador

Dehradun, India

When I completed my class 12 this year in march, I was aimless. I had no clue as to where I was headed. 

My friends were going for law, management, and what not.  I decided to stay in my own city and complete my graduation.  Most of my classmates left for Delhi, the capital of India since it has the best colleges. It was a tough decision since all my friends kept reminding me of the fact that I had no future in Dehradun.

I enrolled myself for a course on disability and busied myself in cooking, etc.  Then, Jessica Rimington wrote to me about her new program, One World Youth Project, and I was both
excited and honoured to be a part of it. I would have loved to travel with her around the world, but fundraising in India is not easy and so I could not go. 

I asked myself: "why don't I initiate a movement involving kids and the youth in my own city?"  I was inspired by Jessica and resolved to form an NGO ( a non-governmental organisation).

It took me some time to draft the framework and now I'm all set. The organisation will be registered soon! The name of the our organisation is "FOCUS EARTH FOUNDATION". 

We will begin by holding health camps in the rural areas first.  Next, on our agenda is working with Jessica herself in april 2005. How i'm looking forward to that!!

I once read in a Richard Bach novel that each one of us has a mission on earth and if we're alive it only means that our mission on earth has not been accomplished.

Now, I have a purpose too.  I'm not aimless anymore...

Love,

Ashima

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Do you have a story to share?

Send us your One World Youth Project news!

info@oneworldyouthproject.org

Little Eco Friends student forms group at his new school and reports on their latest service project to tackle waste management in Delhi, India

Here is a report on our activities to share with all members of One World Youth Project. Since my other members of Little Eco Friends are at Bangalore, an associate group, Eco Columbans of my school friends has been formed in my school, St Columba's to carry out the waste management project in Delhi.

We have applied for participation in Children Environment Summit being organised by UNEP in Japan in July 2005. We are eager to participate in it if we are selected and get sponsorship from UNEP/Organisers/other sources.(Please pray for us to be lucky!!)

regards
Harshit

A Summary of Our Project
Tsunami has hit South-East Asia very hard, and Garbage Tsunami has swept away capital of India, Delhi - with 7000 tonne waste generated daily. An urgent need to educate people was felt by us and Eco Columbans took shape. We prepared action plan begining with thorough survey and awareness campaign ‘Light...Action....Camera....’ - street plays, nautanki (folk plays), signature campaigns, carnival, setting up compost pits, preparing human chain ....... Eco Cops system and increased awareness among children, parents has improved waste management and brought waste down drastically - A definite step to cleaner Delhi and ‘Zero Waste’ St Columba’s School.

Why The Project Was Done
Easiest way to get to Delhi is to follow your nose - the unfortunate truth with 7000 tonne waste generated daily - 25 tonne by the time you finish reading the project report - expected 17,000 tonne by 2020. Municipal Corporation of Delhi spends USD 30 million annually for waste management. The money could be more fruitfully utilised for education, health care of poor children. Due to lack of awareness, there is no proper waste management. Households dump garbage at street corners and is transported to landfills - a way of postponing disaster. 90% waste reaching landfills could have been recycled/ put in compost pits. Greenhouse gases like methane are generated from decomposition of organic waste in landfills. Hidden in waste are hazardous chemicals which reach ground water.
Waste pollutes water we drink, air we breathe and land on which we grow crops. Waste is often left open which becomes breeding ground for diseases with rag pickers being most prone to suffer. Surat plague caused due to improper garbage disposal affected lives of many. In India, out of 3119 towns and cities, only 200 have partial or complete sewage treatment facilities. Most common form of polybag disposal - burning - causes cancerous toxic fumes. 25-30% of the 60 tonne waste from hospitals is infectious but still we observed callousness in hospital waste management during our survey. Industrial waste sums up around 200 tonne daily, most of which gets illegally dumped in rivers, polluting life sustaining water, poisoning aquatic life and disturbing food chain. Water borne diseases alone account for 66 % of all illness in India resulting in loss of 73 million man days. The statistics and figures are shocking and there is every possibility that we have a Tsunami on our hand unless waste management issues are taken seriously.

more...

Click here to view the full project report

"I had a dream," says Staci of Virginia

In mid-November, after participating in a One World Youth Project workshop, Staci Bennett had a 'dream'.  She had an idea to create a community service organization in Danville. "My project, the Community Organization of Angels is a way to give back to the community of Danville," states Staci. 

She is already well on her way to reaching her dreams! Staci has applied for a grant from Do Something.  "The biggest problem in the city of Danville is the litter," explains Staci.  "Every street that you go on all you see is trash, wastepaper, or garbage lying along the roadside... The Dan River is full of garbage that should not be there at all."  Staci's Community Organziation of Angels will work to solve this problem. 

"The community of Danville can be a wonderful place," says Staci. "But in order to reach this goal every man, woman, boy, and girl must come together as one and work as one."

For more information about the

Community Organization of Angels

email: info@oneworldyouthproject.org

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Youth Leadership in Virginia!

In mid-November approximately twenty-five Westwood students spent two days working with Project Ambassador, Jessica Rimington. 

"It was an incredible group of students," explains Jessica. "In two days they went from arguing and interrupting each other to a cohesive group of youth leaders. I'm  not exaggerating it happened just like that. There are some tremendous leaders in the Westwood group that helped pulled everyone together."  

The Westwood group spent over three hours writing a Declaration that will be presented to the United Nations.  They organized the writing process entirely by themselves and the final product was impressive.  The students at Westwood learned that young people are not just the future but the present as well! They have since formed an after-school group, are planning future projects, and looking forward to communicating with their sister-school in Escazu, Costa Rica! 

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"What America means to me"

By, Michelle

student at Lake Area Middle School

New Orleans, LA, USA

America to me is a place where you are free.  America is a place where you have rights.  America to me is a place where you are not judged by your skin color.  To  me America is special.  America to me is the place for me to be.

To read more student work click here

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"Everything happens for a reason"

By, Ashima

Project Ambassador

Dehradun, India

Life is strange. Everything happens for a reason.  Sometimes some things happen to us that we believe have happened to us before. We just don't seem to recall, exactly when they took place.

I read a book once which explained it by saying that we have the power to see our own future.  It could be in glimpses of the day to come, or things that we would do or little things like that. When some scene of our life occurs before us and we remember having been there before, it just proves that we have already seen it and are only experiencing it now. 

After I read the book, I started reflecting on the happenings of the day and to my utter amazement, it formed a connection!

I was not interested to get myself enrolled for this course on education of the disabled, but somehow I did. Then, reluctantly I went to attend the classes. Gradually I found a whole new world in my classes!

India has probably anywhere between 60 million people with disabilities at all ages and living in diverse socioeconomic environments. I began taking an interest in my classes.  I wanted to learn everything about the disabled.  I wanted to help! It awakened in me a new respect for life.

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