Students’ 12-point action plan on elders, climate change to feature in sermons across faiths
HYDERABAD: Students participating in the Compassionate Citizenship Program have drawn up 12 actionable points on care of elders and climate change, which will be propagated through weekly sermons across religions after faith leaders agreed to take the campaign forward.
Students frame solutions after field studies
The students, drawn from schools implementing the Compassionate Citizenship Program run by COVA Peace Network in collaboration with the Education Department of Government of Telangana, worked on the two themes as part of value education.
They attended lectures, conducted field studies using social science methods, interacted with stakeholders and received training in social advocacy to identify problems and propose solutions.
Five points on elders, seven on climate
For care of elders, the students identified five action points: spending quality time with elders, ensuring respect and dignity, fulfilling elders’ needs, helping elders living alone, and forming senior citizens’ groups in community centres and places of worship for regular interaction.
On climate change, seven points were proposed: saying no to plastics, planting and protecting trees, avoiding wastage of water, saving energy, using public transport, cycling and carpooling, offering drinking water to gig workers and delivery personnel, and spreading awareness through posters, rallies and video messages.
Faith leaders back weekly sermon outreach
Students submitted representations on the 12 points to faith leaders, including Archbishop Antony Prince Panengadan, Vithal Rao Arya of Arya Samaj, Maulana Mohammed Amer of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, Rev. Dr. T. Bhasker of CSI Wesley Church and Mohammed Azheruddin of Jamaat-e-Islami.
They requested the leaders to share the action points with priests and preachers for dissemination during weekly congregations in satsangs, masjids and churches. All the leaders appreciated the initiative and agreed to circulate the material within their faith networks.
Plastic-free school initiative
At Sharada Vidyalaya, Falaknuma, students inspired by the ‘no to plastic’ action point approached the principal seeking to declare the campus a plastic-free zone. The school agreed and issued a circular banning plastic bottles, bags and wrapping material on campus.
The Education Department has recognised the programme’s potential and included it as part of value education through a memorandum of understanding with COVA to scale it up to 3,000 schools across Telangana.
Twenty-eight schools from Hyderabad participated in the annual project works display, where students were awarded prizes for their presentations.
The event was dedicated to the memory of former COVA Peace Network presidents Egbert Samraj, Anand Raj Varma, Omim Maneckshaw Debara, Naheed Banu and Sardar Nanak Singh Nishtar.
