Government’s Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya Mission is getting a lot of support from various organizations and activists. When international organizations like American India Foundation and Coca-Cola participate in this kind of mission it promises to create a big volume of transformation. As a matter of fact, SMS Mission Recycling by the two is an effort to educate school children on waste management and recycling. This is not a classroom education. It is like learning by doing. In fact, this is not the first project that the two are doing at such a large scale. Rather it comes into picture after the grand success of SMS Mission 1000 thus taking it to the next level of scale and scope. Now, the scope of the project is to create an impact to 11 lakh students those are studying in more than 5000 schools. Just imagine the overwhelming result it will produce.
The sad part of Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya Mission is that it requires larger than this volume of participation to bring a substantial change in India. But then, every drop counts. And no effort is small in this regard. The project SMS Mission Recycling will be a major contributor to the government’s cleanliness drive across the nation. This project, in particular, will emphasize on systematic waste management. That will include the proper seggregation and collection of al kind of wastes that includes PET i.e. Polyethylene Terephthalate. More organizations need to come forward with their own innovative ideas in this regard. In fact, this systematic collection and seggregation mechanism will help in facilitating effective recycling. The project does not limit itseldf to schools. It intends to cover communities also.
Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya Is A Big Mission by GOI
So, besides impacting more than 11 lakh children in over 5000 government schools across the country, the project will also cover more than 1 lakh community members. This will prepare them well understand the benefits of solid waste management. Definitely, this will help their society, school, and community a lot. With the launch of this project, Coca-Cola India in collaboration with American India Foundation is doing a phenomenal job.
Nishant Pandey, CEO of American India Foundation says, “Building on our experience of driving awareness of sanitation & hygiene issues across schools in India, we believe that engaging students with waste management and recycling concepts will give them a deeper understanding of the huge role that sustainability plays in our future. We’re excited to partner with Coca-Cola on the Support My School – Mission Recycling campaign which aims to reach 5000 schools across 10 states in order to give children the chance to build a cleaner tomorrow and a sustainable future.”
T. Krishnakumar, President, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia, says, “We believe that sustainable development should be at the heart of everything that we do and we must collaborate with our partners to find and develop solutions for a sustainable future. We are now excited to launch SMS Mission Recycling in association with American India Foundation to create awareness among school children and communities on proper ways to implement waste segregation and recycling. Children are change agents for a better tomorrow. They have the influence to sensitize their communities and as the future of our country, they grow up aligned to such environmental causes.”
Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya Mission Is Difficult But Not An Impossible Mission
Avijeet Kumar, Chief Operational Officer, Charities Aid Foundation (CAF)—the first implementation partner of SMS Mission 1000 says, “Support My School is an innovative campaign aimed at transforming lives of thousands of children across the country and we are extremely proud to be associated with it. From educating children about rainwater harvesting, to ensuring access to proper sanitation, the campaign has helped promoting positive environment in schools. Interventions such as these are important to address the broad socio-economic gap and educational inequalities in our country. The impact seen in 1000 schools through this campaign has been extremely satisfying.
Bhushan Tuladhar, Regional Technical Advisor, South Asia – UN-HABITAT says, “Our congratulations to all partners and friends of the Support My School (SMS) campaign for achieving “SMS Mission 1000”. It is remarkable that the campaign has reached over 4, 00,000 students across 1100 schools in the region. We look forward to support the next phase of the initiative – SMS Mission Recycling.”