alarmo Quarterly Newsletter 4- 2022[download pdf]

QUARTERLY NEWS LETTER 4: 2022

Welcome to our fourth quarterly newsletter. The year ending as well as the new year was so special  for us as we celebrated it at our second camp under project urava. Project urava was taking a next  step by involving more children from a different background. But this period was challenging for  our next project, track the trash as we found new twist and turns in waste management. Our team  got bigger with an addition of our new intern.

Project urava phase Nadhi: Last three months of the year were a preparation period for alarmo as we were preparing for the Nadhi phase of urava. The second phase of Urava was finished with the five-day camp from 28th December to January 1st. Between the first camp in April and the second camp in December, there were 6 intermediate visits to the project location. 

        There were 19 children for the second phase among which 16 are from the tribal village in Wayanad who were the participants of the previous camp and the rest were from the neighboring district Kannur. The three children from Kannur were selected after the interaction held in the Mother Teresa school in Panoor. The interaction was held in October during which Ms. Akhina explained about Urava and the upcoming camps and three were selected after the interaction. The Nadhi phase was held in the Kattikulam region of Wayanad where we rented a space for the camp. The goal behind involving more children was to create a space for learning as well as for the exchange of knowledge between children from different backgrounds. The first day of camp was spent in the Valad region (the residential area of the children). Children were enthusiastic to show their place to other

children from the city. Both groups of children mingled and interacted soon after the introduction. The next four days of camp was held in kattikulam and children were brought to the location. As it was not a residential program the travelling part was bit difficult for them still, they enjoyed each day of the camp. We found sports as a tool to build strong bond between children thus with the help of our mentor Alvish who was known as sunny among children we used volleyball, football, and badminton to get them connected to each other. Mrs. Lasitha who was part of the team and was a coco player helped us to teach coco to children. The third day of the camp was given tasks where they engaged in collecting leaves for making a herbarium. Rather than just collecting it was more important to know the purpose of each plant. Children shared their knowledge about the plants to complete the task. Sunny along with other volunteers Parthiv, and Yougene helped children to get relevant information about the plant. The fourth day was spent on trash collection from the area. Along with the collection children made posters about problems with waste mismanagement. During the collection and segregation of waste children interacted with a few people from the community about the issues associated with the mismanagement of waste. Apart from the tasks we also enjoyed the time in the stream we always love splashing the cold water on each other.

The last day was dedicated for new year celebration. We brought them to the backyard of the campsite where we have a few orange trees and children enjoyed plucking the oranges and sharing them. Later we cut the new year cake which was followed by a delicious meal. The new year was special with the presence of a few of our supporters Prija, Vyshanv, Sruthin, and Sreeram, and our team members Riya and Chacko. The goodbye in the evening was emotional as the children wanted to spend more time together. 

        During the last three months, we had three intermediate visits which were two in October and one in December during Christmas. For the December visit, we had two guests with us Verena from Germany and Akhil. Akhil is a musician and he brought his instruments and helped our children to learn some basic notes in playing Ukulele. They also enjoyed spending time with Verena by teaching her Malayalam.

Project Track the Trash updates: The track the trash project was launched in order to understand the issues in the waste management sector and to come up with a solution for the issues. The waste management sector involves many stake holders from the community to the government so we decided to get a response from each stake holder. We collected responses from three districts across Kerala, Trivandrum, Palakkad, and Kannur. Akhina, Snobin, Sahasra, and Gayathri were involved in the data collection. Most of the families were

aware of the issues associated with plastic and most of them collect and give plastics to the collecting team but it was shocking that apart from plastic they burn all other waste including clothes and napkins. The waste collection and segregation itself varies in different areas. The major issue from the local self-government side was finding a storage place for the collected trash. The responses from the women collective who collects the trash we understood the need to bring behavioral change in people in dealing with the waste. Most

women complain about the harsh behavior of the people towards the women who collect the waste. We also collected responses from the organizations that collect the waste for treatment. Green worms and Clean Kerala are two such organizations. The storage facility is one major challenge for them as well. Trash management is a major issue in cities like

Trivandrum compared with other places like Kannur and Palakkad. The dense populations generate a huge amount of waste per day and the storage facility is less compared with other districts. The project is paused for a break after the data collection as we realized the need for a collective effort from similar organizations working in this sector. Waste management needs to give more importance to planning day-to-day activities. Especially during organizing events. We understood the need to conduct more activities to

spread awareness about waste management among the community which we will be planning as interactive activities. The discussions with other organizations like Sustera foundation, Bring Back Green are under process and the updates of the projects will be published in upcoming newsletters.

Our team: Our team of alarmo is getting bigger with some new faces. As we are reaching our first anniversary, we decided to involve more youth in our activities as we realized the importance of sharing the experiences with more people, especially the youth. Sahasra is our intern who joined our team in September. She is involved in the project Track the Trash. Sahasra is from Palakkad and she is so passionate to work for the environment. Gayathri is an energetic volunteer from Trivandrum who joined for Track the Trash project. Alvish who is known as Sunny among our children is a sportsman from Kannur. Alvish joined our team in December under project Urava. He was supporting us with his driving skills along with the mentoring during the initial days. Alvish will continue to be on our team during the upcoming camp days under project Urava.

Dear friends and supporters,

The new year is always a new beginning and for alarmo it is all about continuing what we started.

Each step that we took was so special and important for us. We are looking forward to another

year with more opportunities and challenges. We believed in ourselves which was much needed for

the path we chose. Thank you all for being with us.

Akhina Mohan

Founder