Highlights for the year 2022-23
Direct outreach/output
- From April 2022 to March 2023 we enrolled 3978 Hasiru prerakis/Green motivators as climate action volunteers under Rainmatter-Buzz Green program
- 2563 Green motivators completed 5 module of the Buzz Green curriculum (curriculum summary below)
- Basket of needs household survey done for 4333 households in 172 villages of Kolar district
- 107 Green motivators took initiative in their own villages and initiated the kitchen garden
| Topics | Why | What | How |
|---|---|---|---|
| Natural Wealth | To set the context | What are the natural resources around you? | Activity |
| How has it changed from past to present? | Interactive discussion | ||
| Climate change | Reflect on daily lives | What is climate change and how it is affecting you? | Story telling video- Climate change awareness |
| Understand their thoughts on climate change | Do you think climate change is real? | Interactive discussion | |
| How is it affecting you, your family and surroundings? | |||
| Understand the concepts of weather, season and climate and its changing dimension | Weather, season and climate: Now and earlier. | Activity | |
| Water | Understand relationships between water and life | What is water? What is the role of water in our lives? | Interactive discussion |
| Reflect on daily use of water | Water and daily life | Activity | |
| How water is formed? | Creating the water cycle | Activity | |
| Understand sources of water | Interconnections between rainfall, surface water and groundwater. Importance of water for life and sustenance | ||
| Understand and acknowledge that water is an asset which belongs to the community and environment | Who owns Groundwater? | Game | |
| Learning conservation measures and encourage adoption at home | Save, Reuse and Recharge | Activity | |
| Understand importance of optimizing water usage and saving for future generations | |||
| Learn mapping and understand what they currently have | Map water bodies and other water sources in the village | Homework - when women go back to their homes after the day’s training | |
| Land | Understand and acknowledge that land is an important asset for life | What is land? Role of land in our lives? | Interactive discussion |
| Understand important land resources such as; soil, trees, forests | Importance of trees, soil, forests etc. | Activity | |
| Understand and acknowledge that land is an asset which belongs to individuals, community and the environment’ | How does it support our daily life and well being? | Case study reading | |
| Learning conservation measures and encourage adoption at home | Land bunding, organic manure making and mulching and tree planting | Activity | |
| Learn mapping and understand what they currently have | Map forests, Gomalas and other land resources in the village | Homework - when women go back to their homes after the day’s training | |
| Get access to and learn the traditional knowledge of their own community | Traditional foods, its associated health benefits, knowledge about native seeds and plants and livestock | Homework - Interaction with elders of the village | |
| Pollution & Consumption | Understand about pollution : land, water and air | Dried up/polluted water bodies, polluted land and environment | Activity |
| Create awareness on interconnections of consumption and pollution | Household consumption and pollution | Activity | |
| Solutioning | To facilitate women to create tangible solutions towards reducing pollution, and protecting water and land from climate change | Action to be taken at home in 1 week, 1 month and 1 year | Activity |
| Record Indigenous knowledge | Activity | ||
| Green Village | Spreading knowledge with others | Delve into their network | Interactive discussion |
| Learn to restore/safeguard, natural resource commons in the village | Importance of natural resource commons for the village. Steps to restore and safeguard it | Activity |
This rural woman has inspired 110 other women to start kitchen gardens in their houses
Getting inspired and implementing change in one’s life is itself a big thing. But imagine inspiring 110 women to start kitchen gardens in their homes - that’s what Shylaja did!
Shylaja never ventured out to get herself a job or involved herself with community initiates until the Buzz Self Shakti training. But that training was a spark that made Shylaja an unstoppable force. She then attended the Spoorthi training, went on to become a Buzz Anchor woman. She also took the Buzz Green training in February 2022 and became a Buzz Green Motivator.
With this exposure, Shylaja got to know about a job opportunity at the village Panchayat as a Master Bookkeeper (MBK). This job requires her to visit villages under the Panchayat and spread awareness about various schemes and loans that the villagers can avail. This job automatically connected her to rural women.
Having created a kitchen garden in her own house and seeing the benefits, Shylaja started sharing her learning with these women. Whenever she gets a day off from her Panchayat job, second Saturdays or Sundays, Shylaja goes to the villages and creates awareness about creating kitchen gardens. Taking inspiration from her, 110 houses now have kitchen gardens! All this during her free time in the last one year and she is all inspired to continue doing this!
And it’s not just kitchen gardens, she talks to them about not wasting water, avoiding use of plastic and saving money. Her enthusiastic involvement with the villages caught the Panchayat officials in awe, too. They conferred her with the Best MBK award.
Shylaja has brilliantly made use of the knowledge she got from the Buzz training and the opportunity that her job at the Panchayat opened up to create a unique impact.