Build a children's army to fight global warming

As with most things today, our project to enlist schoolchildren in the fight against global warming has been put on hold until the current emergency has passed.  But we remain committed to helping children learn how to plant and nurture as a way to cool both their immediate environment and the planet, and look forward to resuming our efforts as soon as we can.

Meanwhile, we are scrambling to provide emergency food and supplies to the thousands of families who no longer have the income that jobs as daily wage workers, street vendors and migrant workers used to provide.   We have been offering a mid-day meal to groups in need that some of the children told us was all they would have to eat that day.

We are grateful for your past support and are hoping trees that the trees you helped the children plant will have managed to survive without regular nurturing during the crisis.  Although I realize that some of you have yourselves been coping with a drastic loss of income, if you are able to make an additional donation to help make sure that the schoolchildren are adequately fed during this time, you can donate to provide food, funds & support for India's COVID-19 victims .

Wishing you strength and safety during this difficult time --

Janet Preethi

Links:

• the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the marginalized

With the help of some generous donations locally, we were able to purchase enough saplings to give to each child at the Siruganur school who has a birthday in September or October. Janet Preethi, the project director, visited the school to talk about how planting trees can help slow global warming and to present the saplings, along with birthday cards signed by some of our supporters locally and around the world. The children enjoyed getting the cards, which designated them Climate Change Superheroes and which were signed by friends from as far away as Cameroon and California. 

This week, we returned to the school to see how things were going.  All the trees are strong and healthy;  we were pleased to see that our idea of gifting the trees to the children on their birthday sees to have inspired them to make sure to provide the needed nurturing. One of the girls we talked with said how happy it made her when she came in the morning to water her tree and could see how well it was growing.

Unfortunately, GlobalGiving has not yet been able to resolve the regulatory problem that is keeping them from being able to disburse our funds, and has indicated that it will be at least until March before they will be able to do so.  As a result, we will not be able to gift any more saplings till at least the spring.

Thanks again for supporting our work -- we'll keep you posted.

Gratefully, 

Janet Preethi