Caution paper overload giis
- 1. Caution! Paper overload!! Project Paper These days paper is consumed at a faster rate than it is produced. Did you know that cutting down trees to make paper is one of the major causes of global warming? At this rate, in the future, the world will have no trees and therefore no paper. We heard about the Design for Change competition through our facilitator Punam Ma‟am and we decided to try to make a change in the world. Thus, Project Paper was born. We met daily to decide on our plan of action. We got some pointers from the “Design For Change” website as well. We decided on our project name and who we were aiming to impact. We split the work among ourselves and decided on how we were going to accomplish the seemingly-impossible task of creating widespread awareness. Now came the task of actually implementing our ideas. So we talked to our principal and vice-principal to get some more valuable inputs on this project. We got various interesting ideas from them and decided that we were going to create awareness in three different areas: Our School, Our Neighborhood and Our Homes. We made colourful posters on newspapers and hung them up in our school and neighbourood. Next, we made some paper bags using used paper and newspapers and painted a re-use message on them – these were then distributed among our friends, family and neighbours. We also prepared a program for the school assembly on the theme „Save Paper to Save Our Earth‟. With the
- 2. help of some friends, we presented it to the school. This program included a speech and a small skit. We saw immediate effects as the students now think twice before throwing away unused paper or making paper planes. The impact was caused in all of our focal points. At home we now use the unused side of paper instead of throwing it away. Our message painted on the paper bags reached many of our friends, family and neighbours. We created awareness on saving paper in 3 neighbourhoods. Each of us distributed paper bags to 10 neighbours, a total of 50 houses. We believe that we changed the mindset of our school including approximately 1000 students, our administration office, principal, vice-principal and 70 teachers through our skit. Our posters attracted a lot of praise from our teachers and friends and made them think about the cause. We proposed a new CCA for paper recycling and this idea was taken into consideration by our school. The idea of sending school notifications through email was implemented and in this way less paper was used, thus helping our world. Recycling bins were put up for recyclable materials and used paper. We were glad to see that students used them well. The „Design for Change‟ contest was a learning experience for all of us. It has taught us all to save the world for our future generations. By putting our heads together, we came up with various ideas to reduce paper consumption. Meeting up often and staying back after school bonded us all together because we supported a common cause. We learnt teamwork, and together we came up with a lot more than we could on our own. The „Design For Change‟ competition made us view the
- 3. world in a different way. Before, we were ignorant to the fact that our earth was in grave danger. However, because of this enriching yet fun venture we turned over a new leaf, but not just us. Our family, friends and teachers made the change as well. While reminiscing about this project we remind ourselves that even though we focused only on saving paper we did what we could and we did it well. We did our part to save the world and we‟re going to continue. Have YOU started YOUR journey to save the world?