Good Earth School Visits Keystone Foundation

By Vidya S., Technical Coordinator, Climate Change, and Silambarasan S., Technical Coordinator, Biodiversity Conservation

Photo credits: Vidya

Vidya: Good Earth School Visit – Day 1

On September 13th and 14th, the Good Earth School from Chennai visited Keystone Foundation.
Simbu and I facilitated over the two days. There were 23 students from class 11, along with 3 faculty teachers. To begin with, we started an engaging and informative campus visit where the students got to know about our work as an NGO. Students explored the campus with excitement, visiting all the projects teams. They especially enjoyed meeting with Aadhimalai, Last Forest and the People and Nature Collectives.

In the afternoon, we visited one of our restoration plots in Keircombai. A small discussion, along with the importance of restoration and wetlands, was facilitated by Simbu. Following that, we visited a
coexisting village “Indiranagar”, where students explored the village and learned about our coexistence work with local and Indigenous community. Simbu explained Sagavalvu radio, which acts as an early warning system to help people become aware of interactions with wild animals. The radio is also a place in in which community traditional stories gets uploaded, and Simbu explained how it has been a platforms for youth engagement.

In Indiranagar, wildlife interactions occur mostly due to the dumping of waste in open spaces. We
showed students an alternative to this in the form of local waste segregation construction (animal proof waste storage bins) which are used by the community. The panchayat helps in disposing the waste from these bins twice a week.

Through this visit, students were introduced to some of the initiatives and implementation work of Keystone Foundation.

Students shared their experiences:

“Only now we got to know that so many products can be made using beeswax“

“I like the PNC room. There were many seeds and pots and
agriculture tools which we enjoyed looking at.”

“Our perception about Indigenous people was different, but after coming here
and learning about them it totally changed.”

“We got to know how people are living with wildlife, animals coming near the
house was something new for us.”

Simbu: Aracode Visit – Day 2

On Saturday, September 14th, we went to Aracode with Good Earth students. We visited the Porivarai center, where we explained Porivarai’s work as a community foundation, and community people talked about the instruments they built and play, which are displayed in the center. We also showed students KWOL Radio, which is housed in Porivarai, and talked about the radio’s function in Aracode. Post lunch, we visited the Aadhimalai Production Center in Banglapadigai, where students learned about value production work happening in the center.