Global Impacts for Tomorrow (GIFT) by GLOBAL CITIZENS OF TOMORROW: Indian students contribute to Sustainable Development Goals in their communities

On the 22nd of November 2023 we welcomed some COOLeaders to our office in Utrecht. 13 students and teachers from the Vidyashilp Acadamy in Bengaluru, India are visiting The Netherlands as Global Citizens of Tomorrow. We invited them together with our other guests; four students of Da Vinci College, their teacher Yvonne Gallagher, Martin de Ruiter from Waves Consultancy and Anne-Marie Voorhoeve from The Hague Center. After getting to know each other a bit, the students presented their great projects contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals to our three experts; Martin de Ruiter, Yvonne Gallagher and Yarima Lugo.

The team of experts asked them questions and gave them feedback for the continuation of their projects.

The projects that were presented were;

• Food wastage in schools
• Menstrual Hygiene
• Cleanliness in under developed villages
• Awareness among farmers
• Sanitation for under privileged Senior Citizens
• Self reliance for the elderly (NL)

It was a very inspiring and valuable morning!

Below you will find a summary of all the projects that 70 students are working on.

Do you want to donate to these kind of projects in India? Visit the Seruds India website.

Project 1 : Food wastage in schools
Our SDG project involves encouraging less food wastage among students. The gist of the project involves a gong placed near the food wastage bin during lunch hours. Whenever a student comes up to the bin with a clean plate, our volunteer will bang the gong and hearing this sound, the rest of the lunch room will applaud the child with claps. Along with the above, the use of posters, “clean plate champion” leader boards, and announcements in school assembly days, we hope to achieve our goal of reducing food wastage in our school. Once successfully implemented in our school we would propose the model in other schools in Bangalore. We will measure the reduction in wastage before and after, to make pitch to various school managements. Impact can be huge due to large number schools having its own cafeteria and in addition there are large number of residential schools too.

Project 2 : Menstrual hygiene
Our SDG project revolves around the goal "Good Health and Wellbeing". Our main focus is on girls' menstrual health and hygiene. We have tied up with the NGO called "Anora Charitable Foundation" that goes by the handle "Reach lives". We're helping and educating the orphans who are under that NGO. We also created a fundraiser 5 days ago and have collected 50k from 17 different supporters till now. We're also spreading awareness and throwing light on illnesses that are not being spoken about openly by making posters and hosting workshops. Once this is implemented among the young girls who are under the foundation, we will look at scaling it up among other similar socio economic profiles such as government schools in rural area and various rural schools.

Project 3: Cleanliness in under developed villages
Our project, we picked a small village in the outskirts of Bangalore, which is underdeveloped. It has multiple problems which includes waste management and lighting. Dengue and other diseases are caused by inappropriate waste management in this area. Poor lighting makes it hard for children to play in the evenings and for everyone living there to walk in the night. BBMP, which is the governing civic body of Bangalore metropolitan area, picks up the trash from here. However, there are no dustbins placed in the area. Therefore, waste is littered everywhere. To solve these problems, our team is placing dustbins in the area and also installing solar streetlights for brighten the area. We intent to raise the fund for the same. We also intent to conduct educational session among these villagers. Once successfully implemented, we will look at adopting such villages and explore the possibility of partnering with an NGO in similar space to conduct this on an ongoing basis.

Project 4: Market access to tribal women’s artisan products
Our SDG programme, which is based on the pursuit of sustainability, aims to create a strong supply chain in order to empower marginalised tribal women. During our "Tribal Connect" project, we came across villages full of skilled craftspeople who didn't have direct access to markets. Their livelihoods are at danger because of this lack of opportunities. Our plan is to display their beautiful items, such as fans, baskets, and paintings, on well-known e-commerce sites like ONDCs (such as Amazon, Upciclo). At the same time, we will use our website and social media to increase their awareness. We will also form partnerships with NGOs, such as with JRP, to expedite distribution throughout India, cutting out intermediaries and increasing profits by 50-80%.

Project 5 : Awareness among farmers
Our SDG project intends to make agriculture more sustainable by educating farmers about eco friendly products. So far our team has visited a village called Kadakola located on the outskirts of Mysore and surveyed several farmers about how they go about their usual routine and why being sustainable methods are difficult to implement for them. We then introduced them crop-rotation, reduced tilling and alternatives to harmful pesticides. On a recent visit to the village we were happy to see the farmers using some of our methods. We would like to introduce them to more farmers in the near future as well as find solutions to their problems while adopting sustainable methods. An action plan will be worked out after our pilot in Kadakola village.

Project 6: Agriculture Society and fair-trade certification
Our project is a twofold solution that targets small scale and larger scale agricultural societies.
Firstly, to combat nutrient deficiencies and promote crop diversity as well as alternate livelihoods we are proposing to make a starter hydroponics kit that can be set up in a small area and used for growing different kinds of leafy greens. The second phase of the plan looks at identifying key changemakers in different agricultural communities, giving them certain tasks to do throughout a prolonged period of time and then at a later date when once all criteria have been fulfilled getting them the Fairtrade certification.

Project 7: Sanitation for under privileged Senior Citizens
We have taken our target place as an old age home near Yelahanka old town and we plan on building new restrooms and give them basic sanitation facilities. We have already finished the building process of the restrooms and have started on making a revised plan on how we can maintain the restrooms. We have also ordered a bunch of sanitary items like gloves, masks etc. for the management team in the old age home as people get sick very easily. As for the people we have ordered a bunch of medical items like medicines and syringes and also a bunch of sanitary items that have already been distributed between themselves. We plan on finishing the revised plan on how we are going to maintain hereafter and will share it with the teachers shortly.

Project 8: Vision project for cataract patients – Under privileged senior citizens
One old age home was identified, incumbents were tested, and 15 patients were found to need anti-Cataract intervention. The necessary surgical interventions were also completed with support of an identified partnering hospital. Currently discussion is under progress to create system where the residents of the old age home may be tested on regular basis through partnerships. Second point of discussion is how to the project can be scaled up with multiple old age homes and hospital partnerships.

Project 9 : Hospital waste management
It has been noted that while large hospitals have a planned system of waste management, smaller clinics are not managing their waste in a scientific manner. We have discussed the matter with a few clinics in the neighbourhood. Discussion is under progress with a professional hospital waste management company. We intent to run the pilot with couple of smaller clinics subsequent to which we would like to scale up this a large number of clinics.

Masterpeace Burundi Club in collaboration with Youth for Peace & Development « YPD-Haguruka and Young Talent Academy joined with the whole world to celebrate The International Day of Peace and commemorate this event which is held every September 21th of each year.

This why from September 18th to 21th 2023, Masterpeace Burundi Club with its collaborators organized different activities including poems, theater, dance music, workshops for climate change and peacebuilding as well as the football match.

More than 75 young people aged 15 to 25 participated to follow the events and several people came in large numbers to watch this match between young
people from different neighborhoods. These activities took place in Bujumbura precisely at Kamenge.

It is a historic day where people sit together in solidarity of peaceful cohabitation and social cohesion with the aim of building a world of peace for better and sustainable development.

On the 13 of November, we will celebrate The Global Donut Day.
A great event where we will share, inspire, and create together about Doughnut Economics!

If you are a teacher, youth worker, or youngster, working with the doughnut or simply if you are interested in learning about how to use the doughnut in your work with youngsters ... So you are invited to attend these sessions!

When: Monday 13 November 2023.
Where: 2 Sessions online via Zoom.
Why: To learn, to share, to meet new people, to inspire and be inspired as we explore what it means for humanity to thrive in the 21st century.

Session 1 :
ACT! As a Doughnut, Downscaling the doughnut for youth !

When? Monday, November 13, 2023, at 2-3 pm CET!
Where? Online via Zoom.
Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87149650219

In this online session, we share best practices on how to use the Doughnut Economics methodology to engage, connect and empower youth! We will also work on on specific elements/workshops of how to use the doughnut, based on teachers, youth workers and youth experiences  from the MasterPeace network.

Session 2 :
Dialogue on how to use Doughnut Economics by CSOs in Global South.

When? Monday, November 13, 2023 at 3.30-4.30 pm CET!
Where? Online via Zoom.
Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85264331833

In this online session, we will share best practices on how to use the combination of social and climate actions and have a dialogue on the interrelatedness of peacebuilding, gender, and climate action in the global south. 

Save the date!

Healthy Mind, Healthy Body - Bakuriani, Georgia

MasterPeace Georgia organized an Erasmus+ project on the topic “Healthy Mind, Healthy Body” from the 21st till the 29th of October 2023. 

It was a real pleasure to participate in this Erasmus+ mobility of youth workers program focused on Physical and Mental Health and well-being. Youth and youth workers from Georgia, Ukraine, Armenia, Slovakia, Romania and The Netherlands came together to talk about the topic, share experiences and learn from each other. As a member of the MasterPeace core team, it was a great way for me to connect with members of MasterPeace clubs and to learn from and connect with other like-minded people from the beautiful countries that participated in the project.

With me, from the Netherlands, I took four great participants that were very enthusiastic about the project, getting to know other cultures and learning about the topic from other perspectives. Esther is a therapist and has her own business called ‘Liefde voor Jou’ (Love for you), Iana and Tamar work at a great initiative called ‘On the Move Sportvrienden’ and Lieve is a social work student who is doing her internship about positive health at DURF!

We arrived in Tbilisi very early in the morning on the 21st of October. After a nap in the hostel we were ready to explore the city, a great way to start the project. After a beautiful day of walking around the city we met some of the other participants at the meeting point and got on the bus to Bakuriani.

 
The first day was all about getting to know each other. We did many icebreaker activities and games. For me this was already a great learning experience, as these energizers and icebreakers are great for me to use for the workshops I organize in the Netherlands. On day 2 we talked about our values and stressors or pressures that affect mental health in our countries. It was really valuable and sometimes emotional to talk and hear about all things that affect mental health, especially from the ones that have experienced war.

On day 3 we got to know each other and ourselves even better. After a morning of storytelling and dialogues we got introduced to our superpower: Mindfulness. We talked about the difference between mindfulness and meditation and how these two are connected. We did a short mediation together; relaxing for some and quite challenging for others. We ended the day with the therapy of collage making; “Who Am I?”.

On day 4 we talked about exercise and we did some yoga. This reminded me that I have to do it more often because it was hard yet relaxing. After spending the morning talking about and doing exercise we spend the afternoon on Nutrition. Our trainer Mark introduced us to L.I.E.S (labels, ingredients, expiry date and similarity), something we have to keep in mind while buying food in our local supermarkets. 

On day 5 it was time to go on a little adventure together. While listening to music and singing together in the bus we drove to various beautiful forests, churches and parks. This day was all about connecting to nature, Georgia and each other. At the end of the day we enjoyed a real authentic Georgian dinner with many toasts and great wine. We danced together and shared our favorite music. 

Day 6 started a bit later for everyone to sleep off the dance moves and wine. Mark gave us an insight in the Mental Health Toolkit and great book recommendations. We created our own ‘River of Life’ by drawing and answering questions about different parts of our lives. It was the last night for a big part of the group, so we all received our youth passes, danced, laughed and played games.

Esther, my friend for more than 10 years, gave her input by hosting a breathwork session with the participants that were interested in doing this kind of therapy. In The Netherlands she hosts these kinds of breathing sessions weekly at her business ‘Liefde voor Jou’.  It was an incredible experience to be able to share this moment of vulnerability with beautiful people from different countries and backgrounds. I really think this contributed a lot to the project, because many countries are not familiar with this technique yet. I really hope to find a way to spread this kind of therapy in more countries. It is incredible to witness what the body can do! 

My main take away from this project is that in The Netherlands we are privileged to already have so much knowledge about and tools and opportunities for increasing our physical and mental health. Yet, we can always learn from each other by sharing our experiences, trauma’s, ideas and inspirations with people from different countries and cultural backgrounds.

It was a great experience to share, learn and laugh with beautiful people from Georgia, Ukraine, Armenia, Slovakia, Romania and The Netherlands. Let’s keep on spreading our knowledge, energy and most importantly our LOVE!