volunteer

More than six years ago, when I was living at Brigade Millennium, there were rumours that the neighbourhood Chunchaghatta/ Chunchughatta Lake was going to be drained and would become a bus stand. This lake is one of the three erstwhile connected lakes in Puttenahalli, and being involved with the small Puttenahalli Lake, it was of particular interest. I went to the lake area to check out what was happening, and subsequently, Citizen Matters did a story that woke up the authorities. Recklessness choking pretty Chunchaghatta Lake can be read here.  The past year has seen renewed activity at Chunchaghatta Lake.…

Horamavu Parisara Abhivruddhi Samiti (HPAS), formerly called Save Horamavu Lakes, is joining hands with Janaagraha and BBMP to clean Horamavu! The Cleaning drive will be rolled out in several locations. VOLUNTEERS are needed this Saturday, 24th Oct at 8 a.m. in front of Homebuzz. Please register by clicking here, and filling out the form. Please join this effort in large numbers. For more information check the Facebook page here or email save-horamavu-lakes@googlegroups.com. 

Please join the Arekere (Dorsani Palya) Reserve Forest team on Sunday, 29th June 2014 at 7:00 a.m. The task at hand will be to continue cleaning up from where the volunteers stopped last week. For the exact location, please see the earlier post here. Children are most welcome to go along with their parents/ grandparents.  The Arekere (Dorsani Palya) Reserve Forest    Mr Saravanan, who is coordinating the cleanup efforts, had this to say about the start they made on 21st June: It is quite interesting to see our first baby steps towards this cleanup drive. It was a successful and motivating…

The Arekere Reserve Forest is located in Arekere-Mico Layout (off Bannerghatta Rd), near Puttenahalli Lake. It is home to several species of birds, butterflies and other life forms. Information on the efforts to get it cleaned can be found here.   Please see the message from Mr Saravanan, the coordinator of the clean up effort. -------------   Hi All,   We have the following events scheduled as part of forest restoration at Dorsani Palya Reserve Forest.1. Cleaning the reserve forest scheduled on 21/06/2014 (Saturday) at 7 am onwards2. Neighborhood campaign following Saturday (28/06/2014).Your participation along with kids, friends and colleagues…

On 14th June 2014, Whitefield Rising is organizing a tree-planting drive along the shores of Munnekolala Lake. Read more about the restoration of this lake here.   As Arvind Keerthi from Whitefield Rising says, What is exciting about this drive is that it is a confluence of efforts made by the BBMP Lakes Department, which is supplying the 600 saplings, private sponsorship from United Way of Bengaluru, which is funding the equipment and materials, and of course our beloved volunteers, who coaxed the process along, and will supply the calories needed to plant the saplings.  If you love planting trees,…

Report by Jesse Jonathan A recent report stated that there are only 17 trees for every 100 people in the city of Bengaluru. This alarming statistic prompted some much needed action. On the occasion of the World Environment Day, the Uttarahalli Magakere Walkers’ Association along with UWBe and the BBMP organized a Planting Drive at Uttarahalli Lake. Event details can be seen here. 300 saplings were planted on the occasion. 200 Corporate volunteers from Ingersoll Rand and SanDisk, and close to 30 community members from the Uttarahalli area participated in the event. The activity was held to reaffirm the community’s commitment to…

5th June is celebrated as World Environment Day every year.   This year, the trust MAPSAS (Mahadevapura Parisara Samrakshane Mattu Abhivrudhi Samiti, working at several lakes in East Bangalore) along with Say Trees, will be planting more than 400 indigenous tree saplings at Kasavanahalli Lake. Approval of the BBMP who is the custodian of the lake has been received.   Kasavanahalli Lake, Haralur, is about 22 acres, and is the first lake upstream of Kaikondrahalli Lake, off Sarjapur Road.     About 100-120 volunteers from four corporates (3M, AIG, EMC, San Engineering) are expected. Members of the public are invited to volunteer…

  It was one hectic morning for the twenty or more volunteers who came to the lake on 9th June, a Sunday. Coming from South City, Brigade Millennium, Brigade Gardenia, Ramaiah Apartments (behind Sobha Tulip), J.P. Nagar 7th Phase, 24th Main, etc., they reinforced the meaning of the "Neighbourhood" in our Puttenahalli Neighbourhood Lake Improvement Trust. Meera coming from Banashankari extended the "neighourhood" some more! It is indeed incredible how concern about and involvement with the Puttenahalli Lake is bringing everybody together. Transporting the dead tree from South City to the lake bed proved this amply.   Four or five…

   Around mid August this year, 21 volunteers from 14 countries arrived in southern India to work and learn from marginalized communities about their challenges pertinent to health and sanitation. They were part of "Health on Stage", a six week project where they learnt to use forum theatre to initiate simultaneous dialogues on public health in low income areas of Bangalore, Mysore and Chennai. And on 30th September, the 3 groups of participants, their trainers and faciliators gathered in Bangalore to share their experiences with healthcare professionals, media persons and theatre artists.It is well known that water related illnesses are…

Coming from a family of academics, I assumed that teaching ability should be second nature even without formal training. And I'm apparently fine according to many children I have volunteered with although I may not match the exceptional skills of my grandfathers, mother and some of my extended family or a few of my school and college teachers. However, I never expected to receive such honour and affection as I did this September, 5.Actually, I have been a tutor, mentor, learner and friend rather than a school teacher and am still amused when kids address me as Ma'am or Miss…