Clean Pakistan, Green Pakistan

Blog by Farsab, Arfa, Abdullah and Barrira (The FAAB Four).

Overview

I read it somewhere on internet that “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now”.

Revamp the décor of plantation to make it plentiful. Preserve it!

I observed that there is a lot which needs to be done to make our environment healthy as there are just some who are planting trees out there in the best of the times, right now. In order to make an impact, we, a group of 4 members from AMAL Academy, Batch 155 took an initiative to spread awareness about how important it is to keep the environment clean and what are the steps which should be taken in order to improve the sustainability of the environment for the future.

The Update

Following is an update on the progress we have had over past 2 months on this project of plantation and cleanliness in the form a video: -

1. We did plantation in a school in Faisalabad. This was done by sheer hard work and commitment by the team (specifically Arfa, Barrira and Abdullah). We first consulted the issue with the administration staff of the school and then we elaborated on what we wanted to do. The permission was given to us and we went to the school on 25 Sep, 2020 where we performed the work and prayed for the country to prosper and get more greener and cleaner day by day. We thank the school administration from the core of our heart as they understood the importance of the activity and allowed us to make our first change in the world by doing plantation.
2. We held a free online session on Zoom where we requested a respected guest, Mr. Shahzad Basra, who is a well known teacher, farm owner, writer and a traveler to come online in the session and convey us the knowledge on Why plantation is necessary, How it can be performed easily, Where it can be performed and What should we plant? He also explained the importance of cleanliness and the effect which it has on human life.

Pictures from the Plantation Activity at Community College, Faisalabad

A screenshot of the online session on Plantation and Cleanliness awareness

Challenges Faced

Challenges? Their were a lot of them. Following is a list of the major challenges we faced and the way we overcame them: -

1. The most common fear which almost every human being faces before taking an initiative or a bold step is that what will happen if something would go wrong or what if people will not listen to us? So the same was the case with us and we thought that people will not give donations and they will not believe in what we are saying. Solution: We held a meeting on Zoom and we made a plan that for people to believe us, we must have something from our side which we can show them as a proof of our genuine work and we did it. We performed the plantation and awareness seminars and made a record (both in soft and hard form) of them. After this activity, people started to donate more as we showed them the work which we had already done.
2. We all team members are currently students in different universities and fields. So during all the project work we faced difficulty in allocation of time to the project and the university work. Especially when any one or two of us had exams during the project, it was really difficult for him/her to cope up with both the works and the workload piled up due to incompletion on time. Solution: At first, we didn’t thought of a backup plan for such circumstances and just relied on dividing the task work between the remaining three or two team members within the same time limits which we had before. But afterwards we realized that as the workload has increased, we must start doing the work early before the submission so that we can compensate the shortage of a team member by giving more time to the task. We also encouraged the team members who were busy in University’s work that they should try to do their best and must give as much time as they can in the MEGA Project.
3. Getting the audience for online seminar was a difficult task. At first we reached out our friends. Then we posted about the seminar on social media. The response was not good but we believe that was good for us as we tried harder to get an audience afterwards. Solution: We made our friends to join the seminar by making it compulsory for them and asking them in person for the joining. Secondly, we made a post which introduced the guest speaker thus it also attracted an audience because of authenticity.
4. Asking for funds to the people around us was also a tricky part as we had to make them understand the purpose of the work and the need for action. Solution: We demanded the funds from our friends, family and people around us. We also requested for funding on social media. Provided the Easypaisa and Jazzcash accounts for online payments. We ourselves also made our contribution so that we can also justify our statement to people. The ego had to be put aside and the work should’ve been done for the people.

The Significant Changes

At first, we planned to contact public management authorities for cleanliness of garbage piles around us to get it done. But then we recognized before doing this we need to make people realize that we are generating tons of garbage and government spends almost billion rupees per year just to dump it in landfills on city’s outskirts. Unless we reduce the waste and recycle more, our environment will deteriorate putting public health at greater risk.

We changed the approach little bit in a way to first spread awareness in our neighborhood by visiting them and on public platforms to highlight the importance of waste management and waste segregation specifically. When the waste is not segregated it is difficult to pick out the materials for recycling.

Segregating wet and dry waste helps to better waste management

And there was another change in our initial plan, we decided to visit orphanages in Faisalabad for plantation drives but we contacted them and we got to know that any kind of social activities are banned these days. So, we changed our plan and we visited Community College at Faisalabad for plantation drive and it was an amazing self-learning experience and as well as good team work.

The Impact Generated

1. Online Seminars: We members of Circle 1 decided to held an online session to deliver our voice and ideas to public. We invited Mr. Shehzad Basra as a guest speaker. He explained that people usually hesitate to do plantation because it is a myth that plants usually need more take and care for very long time, That’s why people hesitate to participate by themselves in plantation. But there are many plants which do not require such take care, they don’t need excessive amount of water or extra fertilizers. They just grow by themselves, and there is scope of such plants specially in country like Pakistan where we have not enough plants and the existing plants are using for making furniture and other stuff. He also invited us at his own Virsa heritage so we can learn more about basics and his work on plants from so many years.
2. Plantation: Then we planned to do plantation so we can inspire others through our way. Because at least someone has to be the first drop of rain. So, we talked to the management of Community College in Faisalabad and told them about our initiative of clean and green Pakistan. They were pretty inspired and promised to help us in this noble deed. So, we arranged some plants while college management also arranged some of the plants. And with the help of young students our team planted different plants in the campus where management also facilitated us. We were so motivated and after plantation we felt inner peace and joy. So, we team members planned to continue this mission even our fellowship with Amal ends, we are going to carry on this noble cause. We thanked management in the end for giving us opportunity.

Sustainability

We have different plans regarding the sustainability of our mega project work which are explained below: -

1. One of them is that every year finding a new area where there is a need for plantation then we will do cleaning in that area and will do plantation there.
2. Then opening a nursery and hiring some staff there for the protection of our plants and natural resources.
3. Promoting the plantation by giving a “plant as a gift” to our friends and relatives.
4. Arfa is a chemist. She also used the plants extract in her research work for the removal of degradation of industrial dyes. After the publication of her research paper, people will definitely know the worth of the plantation and cleanliness. Arfa’s industrial team management will support the sustainability of our mega project in future Insha’ALLAH.
5. The team members are very passionate about this project. Farsab engaged other people in our project and started working on his own mega project from his village. So we believe that the sustainability of our project is definitely ensured.