By Aditya Goel | Finance Lead
It's been six months since the grand finale of Pitch it! The Kids Sustainable School Challenge and we're delighted to share that all of the kids enterprises are up and running. We had some delays because of the weather: floods. Many of the schools we work in, in collaboration with the Government of Bihar are flooded half of the year. They are literally under water. So it's only when the water recedes that school can begin again, and in our case, that Kid's School Enterprises can be planted.
Shipra's Recycling Co.
Shipra’s school was a mess, according to Shipra, because kids throw garbage everywhere. There are no dustbins and no proper waste disposal. Shipra's big idea was to clean up the mess with the help of her friends and make her school squeaky clean. Shipra and her friends recycled 50 tin cans and 10 waste oil drums to make dustbins out of them. They painted them in bright colors. Now, in shipra’s school, not only are the dustbins present but they make her school look cool because of the brightly coloured recycled dustbins. Every classroom in Shipra’s school got two dustbins, one for organic waste and one for non-organic waste. All the non-organic waste is being properly disposed of by the municipal department of Kishanganj and the organic waste goes to the organic compost manufacturer.
Shivam's Greenhouse Co.
Shivam’s problem was the rampant deforestation going on in the area and lack of electricity in his school. His solution for both problems was unique and effective. Shivam proposed to set up bird houses, bird nests, in trees so that the people wouldn’t cut down the trees. For electricity, Shivam decided for solar energy to power his school. Waste fruit boxes were put into good use to make the Birdhouses and put on trees, all of Shivam's friends joined in painted them in bright colors to attract the most exciting birds they had seen once upon a time, but had not visited latrely. Solar panels were installed on the rooftop and secured with iron grills. Solar panels now provide Shivam’s school with ample energy to power the computer lab, lights and fans at school. New trees were also planted in the school premises to increase the green cover further. Shivam has declated his school self-sufficient in terms of energy and a hub for all the birds in the area.
Ashish’s Build Clean Toilets Co.
Ashish school had low attendance and most of the kids skipping the school more often than not. The reason? Lack of toilets in Ashish’s school. He found out that the root cause behind his friends not coming to school every day was because there was no loo, or rather there were not enough loos, the one that was there was dirty. Ashish set out to devise a plan to restore the existing mucky toilets to excellent running condition and to construct new toilets as well. All the toilets in Ashish’s school were repaired, connected to running water and a new set of toilets were built. The school management is taking the responsibility of maintaining the toilets. A student committee has been made responsible for overseeing the maintenance. The kids are running a campaign in the community to teach people the importance of toilets in every home. The attendance of girls in the school has increased ten times.
Chandan’s Clean Water for All Co.
Muddy water was the only thing available in Chandan’s school for the kids to drink. Unsurprisingly, most of the kids were getting sick because of water borne diseases. Chandan knew that he had to do something about this problem and his solution involved installing a new handpump in the school premises which supplies fresh water 24 hours/day. A borewell was dug 300 feet deep where finally clean, arsenic free, mud free and contaminant free water was available. The school is marking out funds from their annual budgets to install water coolers for the kids so that the kids can get fresh and cold water in the months of scorching heat. Chandan’s solution has solved the biggest problem of his school and he is a hero with his friends.
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