Скачать или смотреть Zero Waste Alchemists #2 | Mobilising the Neighbourhood with Shraddha Rai

Meet Shraddha Rai, Secretary of Darjeeling Gaon Chimek Kalyan Samaj, Youth Hostel Area, Darjeeling. She is a fitness instructor by profession and teaches Zumba and Pilates. She is in fact the only certified pilates instructor in the whole North Bengal and Sikkim region!

Apart from her professional life, she is very proactive with community work and cares not just health-wise but also for the social well-being of people as a whole. Her tenacity and enthusiasm at her work and her enterprising attitude speak volumes when it comes to the kind of respect and support she receives from her folks, neighbors, and fellow Samaj members.

She always wanted to do something about the problem of waste management in her vicinity and was tired of complaints from people about the lack of efficiency of the Darjeeling Municipality. She always believed that the responsibility should come from the people themselves and so when she became the secretary of her Samaj, she made it a priority to work and find a solution to this problem.

Initially, she decided to start a clean-up drive every Sunday by mobilizing her community members. The first clean-up happened on World Environment Day, June 5, 2021, with the help of the Darjeeling Municipality and Edwards Foundation, Darjeeling. There were only a few who had joined them but the clean-up proved to be a nice way of getting people's attention and highlighting the immediate problem of waste management.

Despite the uncertainty of heavy rains, she managed to pull this through. The following Sunday and the one after, she noticed more and more people joining her in her efforts.

She says, "Even after all the clean-ups, the garbage never stopped increasing, but at least this time, we could notice a slight behavioral change in people as they were consciously dumping the waste in the respectable VATs that are along the roadside. Also, the municipality has promised to work hand in hand in helping our team by taking timely and immediate action."

Knowing that these (clean-ups) are not permanent solutions, she called upon an old friend, Utsow Pradhan to conduct a workshop for her community members. The workshop was on home-composting, a major yet simple solution to solving the area's biggest problem!

Currently, she is on a mission to encourage home composting across all households in her community and has also recently opened up a little zero-waste store.

In the future, not so far away, she wants to conduct a series of home-composting workshops and also eco-bricking workshops with the kids.

Please feel free to reach out and know more about her inspirational work.

Cheers!

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