Anaadi Sustainability Awareness for the Young (ASAY) Pilot Program: 13-15 Jan 2017, Coimbatore, India!!Anaadi Foundation

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Introduction!Consumption patterns of people have a huge impact on the environment. Be it

individual energy consumption or diet choices; our actions have a direct consequence on the ecosystem. As Otto Scharmer puts it, a move from "Ego-System" to "Eco-System" may be necessary for a sustainable planet. When this "ego-system" is developed at a very young age, it can lead to transformation. The aim of ASAY program is to educate school and college students on the importance of responsible consumption through an immersive and experiential content. The program will be a blend of lectures, discussions and hands-on group activities. !

Anaadi Foundation and EduSeva Technologies jointly offered a 3 Day Children’s Leadership Awakening Program (CLAP) where we had piloted Anaadi Sustainability Awareness for the Young (ASAY) initiative. The program was held from 13-15 January 2017 in Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India. 57 children in the age group of 14 to 17 and 6 teachers from nearly 10 schools in Tamilnadu including Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, SSVM World School, Chandrakanti Public School, Vidyapeetham Sholingur, Kamala Niketan Trichy and Sudarshan Vidya Vikas, Pudukottai participated in the camp.!

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Objectives!They key focus of the program was to provide children with the physical, mental

and emotional tools to awaken their leadership potential and lead a sustainable and self-reliant life. Sustainability is not just an idea but a way of life and hence write from developing the mental attitude for sustainability to translating into action becomes important. The vision that children set for themselves at this right age, will flow as beneficial actions in the future. The program was designed to enable children to imbibe the qualities that make for a true leader and a successful individual: compassion, vision for the larger good, a sense of ownership, self-reliance, energetic action, decision-making with clarity, inspirational stewardship and self-poise. The key objectives of the pilot program was the following:!

• Creating an awareness about sustainability among school children!• Sharing the principles of sustainability: thought and action!• Awakening students to ecological issues !• Making young people conscious of their relationship to the society and the

environment: anthropocene impact!• Help young people analyse the problem space and propose SMART solutions

using management tools!• Using guidelines from the Indic thought process to evaluate the solutions to social

and ecological problems so that the solutions are sustainable and have a long-term impact!!

Program Content!The program had 3 major components:!Value based Stories : These stories highlighted leadership qualities and the attitude

to be cultivated to create a sustainable future!Self-Reflection: Using meditation and contemplation as tools, the children got the

opportunity to reflect on their individual thoughts to sustainability, how to enhance the same and put it to use for a sustainable future!

Group Activities: As a way of inculcating a. Team spirit b. Problem-solving approach to learning, the children were grouped into several teams and got the opportunity to work on case-studies that dealt with ecological issues.!!!!

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Group Activity!Participants got the opportunity to work on on specific case studies in the areas of

Education, Health, Food and Environment. The case studies about real life situations required them to put themselves in the shoes of a leader. It included themes like self sufficiency, soil management, reinventing the education system, energy management. The case studies described specific problems in rural and urban settings. A few were also based on model villages which had achieved success in Education or Health. Teams were given frameworks to analyze problem space. They were guided to identify the various factors and sub-factors that led to the problem and the consequences. An in-depth exploration of the problem space gave them insights on identifying the core issues. Once they identified the core problem, they were guided to move to the solution space. Teammembers ideated on various solutions. !

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Problem Identification!

The first part of this activity required them to draw “a dumbell diagram” citing the main problem, its root causes and possible consequences. It also required them to discuss ideas, work as a team, and also share resources with other teams. Students from different schools were put together in the same team, and so after a small introduction and ice-breaking session, they quickly got on with their tasks and started ideating. !!

Case Studies!

Re-Imagining School Education:!There were two cases were pertaining to Re-imagining School Education. In the first

case, children had to come up with ideas to increase the enrollments in schools, improve the standards of Government schools, and decrease the number of dropouts. The second

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case was about a highly successful school. The children had to do reverse engineering to find out how the school has achieved such high standards of education. !

Target SDGs 4: Quality Education!!Transform your village into a Clean village:!Children took on the role of village heads, who had to improve the poor sanitation

conditions in their villages. !Target SDGs 6: Clean Water and Sanitation!!Energy self sufficiency:!This is an interesting case about a tourist island that has been consuming too much

electricity, and which is on the verge of being cut off from the grid very soon. The children had to put themselves in the shoes of Industrialists, Engineers and Power Ministers on the island who will have to figure out innovative ways to generate energy locally using renewable sources and at the same time, ensure that the tourists are not affected.!

Target SDGs 7: Affordable and Clean Energy, 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure!!Save the Drought hit village:!Children were made the head of a villages that were severely hit by drought. They

had to come up with various practices like soil management, water harvesting techniques, improved farming practices to save their village. They also have to create employment in their own villages to stop large scale migration of the people to cities in search of better paying jobs, at the same time making sure, that their village would be transformed into a sustainable community.!

Target SDGs 1: No Poverty 2: Zero Hunger 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth!!Nutrition and Health care:!The children, as leaders of a village that has achieved high standards of health, have

been invited to present their success story on how they achieved success in terms of a) attracting volunteers b) spreading awareness among the villagers c) Preventive health care d) Opening of multiple clinics. Their model will also be looked at as an inspiration to recreate in other countries. !

Target SDG 3: Good Health and Well Being!!

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Solution Guidelines!

They were provided with a guidelines sheet highlighting various parameters to evaluate their solutions. The guidelines sheet had different dimensions of the solution including aspects of : Sustainability, Ethicality, Legality, Goal-centrism, Inclusivity, Fund-Generation, Economic Viability, Stakeholder participation and motivation and uniqueness of the solution.!

Evaluation Metrics!

The outcomes were evaluated based on Empathy, Creativity of the Solution and Depth of Exploration of problem space. The teams were given time to present their solutions and explain their charts. Reward points were given to those teams who were able to incorporate multiple SDGs into their solution space. The activity gave the children an opportunity to look at social issues and ideate on practical solutions including the SDGs. 2 Teams were awarded for their work. !

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