PROJECTS UNDERTAKEN BY JIVIDHA

• Friendship with nature camps: A very unique project where students from schools in the rural areas are made aware about the environment. Jividha has been giving guidance to the students and staff of Golden Glade High School, Waranjgaon, in the Nane Maval area since the last 3 years. The students are provided information about their environment, their lifestyle surrounding and habitat through the medium of lectures, slide shows, study tours and visits. The school was also presented with books about nature and environment.

• Graamkosh: (database of the village): The school students in Nane Maval were asked to collect information about their village in all areas like the socio economic condition of the village, water, cattle stock, agriculture and farming, the vegetation in and around the village, hygiene and cleanliness conditions in the village. They formed a database of all this information in the children's panchayat. This enabled them to have a better understanding of their own village and kept this information for ready access for further use for themselves or for any other organization who decides to work in the village.

• Nature conservation project: 2 schools in Nane Maval and 2 in Pavan Maval came together under this project in an effort to conserve the nature and environment in the village. On an average students from about 5 villages come to each of these 4 schools. Jividha, worked on the environment related issues of all 20 of these villages, operating centrally from these schools. The primary issues dealt under this program were hygiene and deforestation in rural areas. The students also collected seeds of the fruits that they eat during summer months and planted trees. About 2000 trees were planted under this program.

• Heritage Maval program: The area around Maval is blessed with historically significant forts, caves and ancient temples. Most of the youth in this area have to quit education for the sake of earning a living. The realization that there is a scope of self employment for such school dropouts, in the business of tourism, led to the birth of this project. Under this program the local youth were educated about the heritage and significance of the sites in their area, and they were provided training for working as a field guide for the treks and study tours conducted in this area, thus providing them a means of earning their bread and butter locally.

• School Garden: Students from about 10 primary schools were brought together under this program and they were trained to develop a small garden around their respective schools. The gardens are now looked after and taken care by the students themselves. Also a vermiculture project was started, under which the students collect all organic waste from the village thus contributing in their own way towards keeping their village clean.

All the above projects were provided financial assistance by CASP PLAN