Unique Programs of HEAL Movement

Ecological Child Rights

Introduction:

The involvement of children in conservation of Coastal Sand Dunes emerged the ecological rights of children.

Ecological Child Rights take into account the rights of children to conserve the ecosystem and safeguarding the natural resources to meet the needs of children.

So a s to ensure the ecological rights of children, HEAL Movement in partnership with Terre des Hommes, Germany - BMZ TdH (G) implemented a project titled as Improvement of Living Conditions by Improving Protection of Natural Resources and Sustainable Resource Management. It was implemented in fifteen coastal villages and forty five adjacent interior villages in Kanyakumari District. HEAL was the lead partner agency appointed by TdH in association with CARE-T and Lifecare Trust to carry out the activities of the project in 45 coastal villages on the whole with 15 villages each under their target.

Activities Carried Out:

1. Restoration Ponds and Wells
2. Conservation of Sand Dune / Costal Biodiversity
3. Rain Water Harvesting / School Garden / Eco Club
4. Child Activities Centre / Eco Club
5. Renaturation in Manakudy Estuary / Mangrove Development
6. Eco Park
7. Head Load Vendors / Kitchen Garden
8. Waste Management
9. Ensure the Ecological Youth Rights

Restoration of ponds and wells:

The 18 wells and 9 ponds have been selected according to lacking financial capacities of the users to repair them themselves and according to the degree of destruction.

In 3 years 3 pounds per year with an area of 2.000 m2 each were deepened with about 0.46 m. The silt was used at other places for the enrichment of the soil. Village structures (administration, village people, children of the Eco-Clubs and children of the Children Activity Centers) were actively involved in these measures. After the deepening of the ponds and therewith associated expansion of water storage capacity, the banks of the all in all 9 pounds (3 per year) were cleaned and deepened. This reduced the erosion of the embankment and future silting of the ponds.

18 open wells in and around villages near to the coast (used by 50 persons each), were repaired and cleaned in the course of the repair work and freed of silt. Sand and silt which accumulated over time in the wells were transported manually out of the well, bricklaying work at the well wall and well platforms were carried out as well as each repaired wells were equipped with protection grids and winches for water extraction. In the first year of project 8 wells were repaired and in the second year of project 10 wells. The quality of the fresh water resources were checked every year through water samples (9 ponds and 18 wells), and the examinations were sufficiently detailed to draw conclusions about the regeneration of the waters. The water samples were taken by community workers employed by the project and analyzed by governmental laboratories. 900 people who earlier had no access to clean drinking water received access to drinking water through this activity. 15.000 people have higher amounts of service water for household and cultivation at their disposal.

Conservation of sand dune and coastal biodiversity:

• Increase in water capacity of 210 wells (60 open wells, 150 tube wells) as well as protection from floods through Re-maturation of 3 selected sand dunes.
• Sand dunes act as protection shield and preventing fisher folk human settlement from natural disasters such as cyclone and tsunamis.
• Act as support to livelihood for fisher folk to dry nets and fishes and also keep shells for marginalised communities.
• Act as potable drinking water source and arrested seepage of salt water of sea.
• Cradle for biodiversity-plant and animal communities- 25 species of plants and 3 species of grabs are enriching this bio-shield.
• Sand dunes act as open mine with deposits of minerals-rare earth and has less radiation materials found in sand dunes and minimizing the impacts of radiation.
• Children's Amusement space due to its golden sand hillocks, slopes and downhill

School gardens and rainwater utilization systems and at schools :

At the 30 target schools (one per target community) rainwater utilization systems and ecological school gardens with worm composting systems were established. The rainwater utilization systems collect the rainwater and feeds it through PVC-pipes into a water tank with the measures 1,2 m3. Excess water was fed to the groundwater through a gravel bed. They serve as practical supplement to the theoretical school lessons. Here the children learn methods to have a healthy nutrition with simple means and without the input of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and to carry this knowledge into their communities and families. Especially the rainwater utilization systems for the irrigation of the gardens serve also as idea for parents and other community members for replication.

Eco-Clubs:

For the maintenance of the rainwater utilization systems, the school gardens as well as the planting for the nature trail for sustainable resource management, the pond banks and around the schools the so called Eco-Clubs are responsible. Under the guidance of the teachers about 3.300 children were organized into 30 Eco Clubs (between 100 and 150 children per Eco-Club).

They organized actions for special days like the world water day, the environment day and the fishery day.

The Clubs met once a month (except in the examination months), and this created cost for food and materials. Once a year the children of the Eco-Clubs organized the 'Earth Day', for this day resource persons were invited. Already existing Parents-Teacher-Association gatherings were continued with these clubs after completion of the project.

Children Activity Centers (CAC) :

CACs were established in 15 communities. In each of the 22 project villages a children center were initiated. The rented buildings were partly community properties, partly private properties. 10 premises were provided by the Panchayat Raj, the councils of the villages, 20 centers were rented because of lack of publicly accessible premises.

The program in the centers supports the children in their school education since they had poor prerequisites because of their back ground to follow the lessons at the formal schools without help and can hardly expect support from their parents. The centers open daily after the regular school timings. Besides the school support program therapies including elements of play and creative activities to promote expression and self-confidence were also offered, as well as awareness-rising measures regarding child rights, especially the right to a healthy environment. Besides a sensitization for environment- and resource protection it was the main aim of the program, to keep the children in school and to prevent that they were used for child labour. Altogether 4.800 children were supervised in these centers. The supervision weree organized by the supervisors employed in the project.

The wellbeing of the children was paramount in all activities in the centers. Guidelines had been developed to protect the children from any kind of abuse. The children had the possibility to report anonymously any abuse/nuisance and requirement for improvement suggestions in a complaint box.

One supervisor per center was responsible for the implementation of the offered activities. From the beginning existing parent groups were involved in the maintenance and support of the centers. They ran the centers independently after the completion of the project.

Denaturisation in Manakudy estuary / Mangrove Development:

• Mobilization of local population;
• Created awareness on sustainable management of the mangrove system of Manakudy, covering more than 145 hectares and 10000 local population;
• Establishing nurseries planted more than 100,000 Rhizophera Avizennia plants involving the local community and the eco-clubs of children.
• Local management committee of 16 members formed and capacitated to sustainably manage the mangrove system.
• Collaboration with Government agencies established.

Eco Park:

To preserve the sustainable population of important fish varieties especially the spawning grounds have to be protected. Many sea fishes use the by mangroves protected waters of the river estuaries for breeding. Therefore the river estuaries rich on mangroves are important, especially for the preservation of important, ecologically utilizable, maritime fish species, but represent also living space for brackish water fishes and crabs which feed on the falling leaves of the mangrove trees. Furthermore provide mangrove forests protection from floods and serve as carbon sinks. Reforestation and expansions of the original mangrove forests in river estuaries are achieved on one hand through the support of an increase and rejuvenation of the existing population but also through replanting of von 10.000 mangroves.

With the mangrove reforestation HEAL continues after earlier successes in the Renaturation of the Manakudy-Delta. The technical advisor of HEAL has several years of experience especially in the field of Re-naturation of river estuaries

In the river estuaries samples were taken every year by the project personnel which provided information about water quality and carbon absorption under the planted mangroves. The project activities as well as the succession of the population and the recovery of the fish population were documented and made available to the public.

Waste Management

• Mobilized community, households, shop owners, institutions and local government agencies - in four villages covering around 40,000 population in Kanyakumari district;
• Established system for sustainable management of wastes - awareness for waste reduction, collection, segregation, conversion of organic wastes into manure; disposal of non-organic wastes
• Establishment of waste conversion units;
• Disposal of organic manure from waste etc; and
• Promoted sustainability of the waste management system through community participation including financial contributions.
• Link to the model project by TdH

Abisha Case Study

Youth Volunteerism in the Coastal Resources Restoration and Conservation

Abisha and her friends started attending the Children Activity Center of HEAL in Pallam village as young adolescent students of 10th standard. More than the academic support, awareness session on child rights along with sports & games were the activities that attracted Abisha and her friends to join the children activity center. Simultaneously Abisha also took leadership in starting the eco club in her school in the Pallam village with the support of staff team members of HEAL Movement. As a lead person of the eco club Abisha and her team of 20 other students planted coastal native species trees within the premises of the school. She has also been one of the youth representatives who actively participated in the coastal restoration work taken up by HEAL in the Manakudy Estuary, Chothavilai Beach and Sankuthurai Beach which were the most biodiversity sensitive zone of Kanyakumari. The youth members planted more than 25,000 seeds of Rhizopora and Avicennia to restore the estuary in Manakudy. Belonging to the fishermen community and a family that iscompletely dependent on fishing, Abisha and her youth team peers have been witnesses to the natural disasters (tsunami in Dec, 2004 and Ockhi cyclone in Dec, 2017) that had grossly affected the Kanyakumari region. The impact of these natural disasters has helped the youth to understand climate change issues as well as fuelled their motivation to conserve natural resources.

Abisha's active contribution to the coastal restoration and water conservation efforts earned her the role of President of Heal Youth Federation and the post of Treasurer of the Eco Youth, Tamil Nadu State Level Youth Network for Ecological Rights.

Abisha presented the coastal ecology conservation efforts in the State level youth networks as well as the National Youth Convention held in Wardha. She also serves as the youth volunteer to manage the children activity center in Pallam. As a children activity center facilitator she has been organizing workshops on child protection for the 30 children in her center and regular child protection audits conducted with the participation of the students.

Apart from the participation in State and National level platforms, Abisha has been organizing sensitization programs through door to door campaign on water resources conservation, natural resource management and solid waste management in the villages of Kanyakumari by joining hands with other youth members. She is also one of the key trainers of the sustainable farming which has trained nearly 300 farmers in Kanyakumari on organic farming methods. She has been equipped with the sustainable models of farming through the regular trainings and exposure received from the organization. She is also one of the key trainers of the sustainable farming which has trained nearly 300 farmers in Kanyakumari on organic farming methods. Abisha has also contributed articles in vernacular for the booklets on 'Water Conservation' published by Heal Movement.

Youth for Ecological Sustainability (YES) this was promoted by TDH (G) South Asia program. Abisha was elected as an East Asia and Pacific region youth representative and she was attended a youth conference on Advancing Children's Rights to a healthy environment program at Bogor, Indonesia on 22 & 23 October 2019.

Uniqueness of this project:

A concept of ecological child rights emerged through this process that captured the thoughts and actions of children contributing towards ecological conservation. This involves the rights of the children to strengthen the ecosystem which enables the healthy livelihood and existence of the children. This can be defined as rights of the children to conserve the ecosystem and strengthen the natural resources for the needs of the children.