The Galaxy Education System-TGES Jamnagar City News Gujarat India

When kids become catalyst for change.

The Galaxy Education System (TGES) Jamnagar City, a small school where the oldest student is barely seven years old, knew that its children were too young to participate in the Design for Giving School contest - a countrywide contest for children to 'feel', 'imagine' and 'do' something about a cause of concern.

Nevertheless, Usha Mani, the school head at TGES, Jamnagar and its parent body came together to inspire the children at this tender age to think of a cause and then do something about it. The school has created a massive movement in Jamnagar - to say 'no' to plastic.

The parents' body wrote a script for a street play for the kids and took them to over 10 schools to create awareness of the cause they were taking on. Inspired by the performances of the little ones, more and more schools volunteered to partner in this campaign.

The time had now come to think of alternative solutions to replace plastic. The easiest answer was of course cloth bags. But procuring material and tailoring bags was a costly option and could not be implemented in a week. These demands made them come up with using used pillow covers.

The school's seven-year-old children, eager to contribute, opted to make handles for these bags. The school has so far collected over 5,000 pillow covers and students are diligently gluing the handles to these covers.

The sense of pride that has built in the school kids while working toward this campaign has caught the attention of the city mayor, collector and the municipal corporation. The city has taken the initiative forward by allotting hoarding spaces and passing a memorandum to ban the use of plastic bags in the city. The city has allotted Rs37, 500 to TGES, Jamnagar to take this campaign forward.

Ten more schools in Jamnagar have joined hands with TGES, Jamnagar. Older children from these schools will spread the message in the city to say 'no' to plastic by doing presentations, street plays and collecting and distributing bags. Usha Mani said, "The way this town has come together to fight for a cause to save environment, we feel empowered to start more campaigns for other causes."