Sulochana Pednekar is a Community Correspondent, a maternal health researcher and a ‎Ph.D Scholar from Siolim village of Goa. Sulo, as we lovingly call her, has worked hard against poverty, inequality and has gained education by doing odd-jobs and getting scholarships. She continues to work hard even today, to balance community work and studies, “I mostly work on weekends as…

Sulochana Pednekar

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Garbage is a major problem in Goa.  However, school children of Aldona village are making a conscious environmental effort to find recyclable solutions to it.  The Garbage Management Program was introduced by the Lion’s Club Aldona, which uses programs already in place in Canada and Ireland and brings them to Goa.

VV-Correspondent Sulochana Pednekar interviews Colin Mathan, a member of Lion’s Club Aldona, Goa:

“Based on a program that is in Canada and in Ireland where I’m from called the Tidy Towns competition, we took that and applied it to Aldona in a Tidy Wards competition.”

The Lion’s Club managed to get land, which was contributed, from communidadeto use as a base to collect garbage and have it segregated.  However, due to the time taken to have the paperwork approved by government officials the club decided in the interim to roll out the program in four schools in Aldona village. 

Recycled bins were installed in the schools, one for metal, one for plastic and one for paper.  Sister Sharon, headmistress of St. Thomas Girl’s School, Aldona, explains how a points system was constructed for different teams (squads).The children are very excited and motivated by this:

“They have also made their people at home aware of segregation of all these waste material.”

A scrap collector also comes to the school and takes items for recycling for which he pays the school.

Due to the success of the program our Correspondent Sulochana Pednekar campaigns, “I feel this program model should be taken up by the village panchayats in every village, as part of garbage management program, in their respective villages, and implement this in the schools in their localities.”

You can bring similar programs to your villages, towns and cities all around the world.  This is especially true of India, where garbage disposal and recycling is still in its primary stages.  Help clean up India NOW!

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