Respect · Activity

Clean-up in Mumbai and Patagonia

5th & 6th Grade

Use this story from the curriculum as you guide the activity. This is a 2-day project: Day #1: The clean-up activity - use the guidelines in the explanation of the activity before students proceed; Day #2: Reflections on the activity (back at school)

 

Five-foot high piles of garbage on a beach in Mumbai, India, did not prevent Afroz Shah, a lawyer and environmentalist, from wanting to do something to make the beach beautiful again. In 2015, he decided to take action. He and a neighbor began clearing the area, removing trash, one bag at a time. Every day the two of them went to that hot, stinky, dirty place, to work hard, even though it seemed impossible to achieve their goal. Before long, they were joined by 1,000 volunteers, some rich, some poor, all concerned about saving the beach. Eventually, 5.6 million kg (kilograms) of trash strewn across the 2.5 km (kilometer) beach was gone! The next step involved planting 300 coconut trees in the sand, restoring the beach to its original beauty. 

 

What do environmentalists do besides clean up beaches?  They protect and in some cases, rewild (returning it to its natural state) natural areas.  In fact, there are many adults, and kids, too,  in our world today who are helping out this cause. You may have heard of the popular sports equipment companies called North Face and Patagonia. Billionaires Doug Tompkin and his wife Kristine left jobs there because they wanted to do something to help the environment. They purchased a large area of land in Patagonia, located in Chile and Argentina on the South American Continent, that is now protected - no logging, mining or agriculture is permitted on this land, which is composed of vast forests, wetlands, and steppe (grasslands). Through their funding of conservation efforts, several national parks were founded, so that people could come enjoy this beautiful place. Rewilding this area meant preserving species of plants and animals to prevent extinction. Some of the animals here almost disappeared completely because they were losing their habitat (home) and means to stay alive (food, shelter). These include some fascinating animals like  the giant anteater, the pampas deer, the green and red macaw, the giant river otter, and the jaguar.   

 

You may think that there isn’t much a kid can do to help take care of the earth. If that’s what you’re thinking, then let us remind you of the story about the girl who collected stranded and dying starfish on the beach, and threw them back into the water so they could survive. Her grandfather criticized her efforts: “Don't you realize that there are hundreds of starfish over miles of beach? Throwing them back into the ocean won’t really make much of a difference.” She replied as she threw one in the water, “It made a difference for that one!” 

 

Activity: The teacher locates an area that needs cleaning up and is safe enough for students (no hypodermic needles, etc.). Check with the local government about any rules regarding this kind of activity and ask if the city can supply any assistance, like disposal of filled bags and materials such as brooms, garbage bags, and gloves. Prepare to take pictures that will be submitted along with an article about the clean-up to the local paper. 

 

Materials needed: gloves, garbage bags, brooms, and other clean-up items; a place to drop off the filled bags; a camera and photographer; transportation to the clean-up area

 

Directions: Explain: “Today we will perform a service to show respect for our community. We will clean up an area of our city and write an article for our local paper to explain why we want to provide this service.” Prepare students with safety guidance about what they should and should not pick up (if they don’t know about an item, ask an adult), where not to go (in the street and in people’s yards), and how to interact with others they encounter. Explain that pictures of the activity will be taken for an article that will go in the local paper. Arrange teams of 2 or 3 to clean together, give all the materials they need, make a plan of who goes where, and let them know where to drop off the bags. The photographer takes a before and after photo, and a few photos of the students as they clean. Back at school, students wash hands and share a few testimonies about their experience. 

 

Day #2: Discuss the service project, using these questions: 

 



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  1. Why do you think there was so much trash there? 


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  2. What if everyone littered everywhere, what would it look like and how would that make you feel? 


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  3. How did you feel when you first got to our assigned area? 


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  4. How did you feel when we finished? 


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  5. Do you think what you did will be appreciated by those who live in this area? 


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  6. What was the most interesting piece of trash you found? 


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  7. How does it make you feel when you see litter in places that should be clean, like parks and neighborhoods? 


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  8. We will be writing an article and submitting photos to our local paper. What are some things you’d like to say in the article? I will write them down and include some quotes from you. 




 

Wrap it up: Explain that the purpose of this clean-up project is to help us understand the need for respect for the places in which we live. None of us liked what we saw when we first arrived at the place. It was ugly. But after we cleaned up, it looked much better and we all felt good about helping out the neighborhood. We can be more mindful about not littering or defacing property, and we can remind others, too.  
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