Children accept the ‘Walk to School’ challenge
Over 3000 children and their parents
took part in the Children’s Earth Walkathon at Bandra Fort on Sunday to spread
the message of environmental consciousness
Mumbai: Over 3000 children, aged 4-16
took part in the 2.5 kilometre Children’s Earth Walkathon organized by Alu
Connect and held at the scenic Bandra Fort at 7.00 am on Sunday. The school
students were dressed as flowers, animals, birds, bugs and held placards
promoting ‘walking to school’ and pledged their support for a better, healthier
and a cleaner Earth.
The
first-of-its-kind initiative by Alu Connect, the idea was mooted by a
six-year-old, Aaira Chunnawala whose awareness of the environment and its
constant degradation forced her to ask her parents to help her in formulate a
concept so that the pollution levels near schools can be brought down. The
initiative was taken up by Alu Connect Pvt Ltd, a company which works in the
field of Education and Health. The team of Alu Connect headed by Derrick
Angelsz conceptualised the Walkathon, giving it an all-round holistic value.
Along
with school children who represented various schools from the city, the event
witnessed the participation of special children and specially-abled children
who walked with their parents and guardians. Aaira flagged off the Children’s
Earth Walkathon, which was a carnival of sorts with had stilt-walkers,
effigies, mascots, among others.
Aaira shared
her thoughts about the run, “The city is much polluted. I experience
constant honking, high pollution levels and falling of trees near my home and
school. Parents drop their children in their own vehicles, which creates a
traffic jam outside schools and also increases the pollution levels. This is
the same air that we breathe. So it’s best we walk to school, so that we can
reduce pollution.”
Derrick
Angelsz, Director, Alu Connect, said, “I am overwhelmed with the
response to our inaugural Children’s Earth Walkathon. It was like a carnival
out there with children displaying messages to promote environmental
consciousness. Also, we gave every child a sapling to either plant it in their
societies or schools. They were very excited about collecting the saplings. We
shall be taking many such initiatives in the future.”
He added,
“Our core objective with this initiative was to encourage children to walk to
school and this is our stepping stone to discourage parents to drop children in
their vehicles and rather use cycles or walk to school whoever stay in the
vicinity. Parents can start by parking their vehicles 700-800 metres away from
their children’s schools. This would prevent them from breathing the toxic
emissions.”
Alu
Connect aims to take this concept to several cities across India in 2020 and also tie-up
with schools in Mumbai for the ‘Walk to School’ program where there would be
pollution meters to access how walking to school and reduction of vehicles near
school premises have brought down the pollution levels.
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