A Wave of Change – WCC At St. Andrew’s College: BMS Department

Earth Volunteer Training Session

The clock ticked past 7:45 and gathered together the student’s from the Management Degree section of St. Andrew’s College, Bandra. The morning sunshine greeted the campus as the soon to be graduates found themselves in a class filled with students interested to learn, understand and grow as more responsible citizens. Led by St. Andrew’s Colleges very own Prof. Omkar Bhatkar and Social Activist Ms. Shibani Sachdev the workshop began with the understanding of the problem and it’s roots. The discussion of how beaches in Bombay have been neglected and not been taken care of with the help of statistics, experiences and pictures was done. This helped throw light on the current state of affairs and how there is a need for immediate action to protect and secure our coast lines. Ms. Shibani shared her own experience and visits to beaches and how there is little to no attention drawn at this vital issue.

There on pictures of Chimbai Beach was shared by the WCC team with the students and as it was passed through, sounds of disgust and faces of disappointment were seen all around. Yes, they couldn’t understand how a beach, that had never heard of before existed just five minutes away from their college was looked and was maintained worst than a garbage dumping ground. WCC then introduced their goals and ambitions that are not short term but long term and to ensure a sustainable and progressive change and movement towards cleaning the beaches. To start off with a beach clean up on the 26th of February from 7 AM to 10 AM where colleges, communities and citizens across the city will gather to take ownership for their beach, their home. Along with cleaning there will be other competitions such as poetry, photography and poster making also held to help encourage art to be used to drive good and change in the society. As creativity, art and community would all together come to be one, to help keep our oceans clean.

The workshop soon progressed to a discussion where students raised points which were answered promptly by Ms. Shibani and further instructions and details were given to the students preparing them for the 26th Clean up. There after Prof Omkar shared various insights about Oceans and their importance and also shared with the volunteers few clips and documentaries about Oceans and examples of inspirational change makers. This revolution to help the community adopt its surroundings and for youngsters to spark this change has taken root. As the excitement and anticipation continued to build as the students gathered to take a group picture in memory of their first workshop in the hope of many more workshops.

Here are a few testimonials from the students:

“So this session really made me aware of things I never thought of. Now it really makes me worried about our future, about how our lives are going to be some years down the line. So I really would love to take steps to delay, if not prevent the inevitable catastrophe.”   (Ryan Shirazi)

“The session gave a sense of belonging towards the oceans of our mother earth. It helped us in evaluating the importance of oceans and the NEED to clean the same. Shibani Sachdeva Ma’am from WCC was a great source of inspiration. If a person can leave everything just for the love of environment, we can surely do our bit to contribute towards the social cause.”   (Medha Singal)

“The session which was conducted was very good and inspiring…really came to know more about the ocean and how to save it by our contribution is really nice….thank you for sharing this project with us… (Melina.M.Lutchmaya)

And here are the Team Earth Volunteers for the Chimbai Beach Cleap Up on the 26th February from St. Andrew’s College, Bandra.

We hope to see you on the 26th, as we begin this journey towards a cleaner coastline. We hope you help us sail through the storm with us.

Written by Alvin Anthony