My name is Rutuja. I am the class teacher of a 7th standard classroom in a Government School in Pune as a Teach For India fellow.

The vision behind the Green School Project is to have clean and environmentally aware lower- income schools and communities.

This is what we are trying to do:
1. Fruit and vegetable gardening in the school premises.
2. Composting organic waste (mid- day meals wastage).
3. Student leaders reaching out to other schools with this project.
4. Introducing gardening and composting in the communities.

The Green School Project was started as a way for my students to expend their energy in a positive (and non- violent way), at the same time trying to clean the school (take a look at the picture of the school ground). What was truly amazing to watch in my students was the growing sense of responsibility and pride in their gardening work. The classroom struggles and fights were forgotten and replaced by so much joy when in the garden!

Though we have planted some vegetables, we have not been able to establish a proper vegetable patch, or the compost pit. The money from these funds will be used to buy proper gardening equipment, composting equipment, garbage bins and to have a guest gardener to teach and work with the students. If this is successful, we would love to have student groups working on educating other students about the same.