Around 60 teachers as well as farmers from a rural set-up in Jorhat district of Assam participated in a programme focused on sustainability education for biodiversity conservation, that was conducted by the region’s premier biodiversity conservation organisation Aaranyak with support from Wipro Foundation.
The participating teachers, educators, and farmer were from of Karuna Kheti Trust in the Jorhat district of Assam. Karuna Kheti Trust is a start-up non-profit founded in 2019 and based in Boisahabi Tea Estate, Selenghat area of Assam’s Jorhat District.
Educators and farmers from the Trust participated in the orientation which was held on October 25, by undertaking theme-based tasks and hands-on activities that were related to the understanding and identification of biodiversity around the school campus, waste management and water audit. In fact, the orientation programme was focused on three key issue — waste management, water conservation and biodiversity.
It may be noted that the Trust works with local rural communities as well communities residing in tea plantations in the area and strives empower the community members through education, livelihood opportunities, health care etc.
Selenghat Valley School is the Trust’s first step towards transforming ideas into reality by creating an ecosystem of collective efforts to provide the children of under-privileged families with education.
“The need for sustainability education is evident in today’s global context. Incorporating sustainability education into the curriculum will prepare students for solving complex interdisciplinary challenges involving environmental degradation, depletion of natural resources, climate change, biodiversity loss, disasters caused by natural and human activity, health hazards, inflationary economies, etc. In order to address social justice and equity issues for nature and humans, sustainability education empowers students, youths and individuals to make informed choices as responsible global citizens,” Aaranyak said in a statement issued here today.
Arjun Trivedi, PhD, the Founder and Executive Director of the Karunar Kheti Trust, attended the event. “Among the sustainable practices the school has adopted so far include using dustbins to categorise waste according to type, so that students can understand waste categorization” Trivedi said.
The school has practised organic farming, toilet waste recycling, hybrid solar system for power generation, waste segregation and recycling. The entire orientation programme and workshop which was conducted by Wasima Begum, Aaranyak’s Environment Facilitator, was coordinated by Pallavi Patra, Manager, Selenghat Valley School.