Dear Colleagues,

This year to mark the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, TRC collaborated with Earth Day Network, PeaceNiche and IUCN to deliver exciting events, discussions and activities.

Since Earth Day has now passed us, we wanted to give you an update on what has been a fulfilling, exciting and rewarding exercise in raising awareness and taking action to protect our Planet Earth.

From April 15th – 21st 2010 TRC and IUCN visited 8 government sector schools in Korangi Town to raise awareness about climate change, how it impacts us and how we can be more active in slowing it down and being environmentally conscious.

Over the 4 days, we met with over 400 elementary and secondary students and the response was overwhelmingly positive and humbling. The wide eyed innocence of these children as they hung on to every word we were saying, the awareness and the desire to change the conditions of their environment, the accountability and sense of ownership not just for their direct environment but for all of Pakistan was incredibly uplifting. The unanimous voice was “we are all Pakistani and this whole country is ours to protect and preserve.”

This is the voice of our masses and what became apparent was the fact that these were not empty promises or mere statements. Upon the request of the students and the administration of the schools, IUCN and TRC will continue working with these schools after summer break and help them with planting trees and other initiatives to make their surroundings more clean and green.

These children seem to understand the meaning behind the statement, “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” and that step has been taken.

April 17th 2010, TRC’s Film Club previewed the movie, “Supersize me.” This movie was screened for a group of teachers in order to raise awareness about the dangers of turning into a fast food nation and the effects of mass production on our lives, our health and our environment. TRC was extremely successful in its mission to raise awareness and we are in the process of developing a pilot project in which we will take this movie to schools and screen it there.

We had also promised weekly classroom activities for the months of April and May. Since we are only in week three of April, these activities are still ongoing and the first three have been sent out as promised.

April 22nd 2010, PeaceNiche and TRC joined hands and screened “Food Inc.” This movie is designed to raise awareness about the horrors of mass production, how human and animal life is second to monetary gain and a call for taking action and demanding information about the food we are fed. After the movie we had Mr. Abbas Raza talk about his organic farm, the fruits and vegetables he grows and what we can do to live and eat healthy. This was a great initiative to raise awareness and empower us to not make the same mistakes the west made.
That marked the end of Earth Day 2010. However our initiatives are not over, they have only just begun and we will be sure to keep you updated.