Be The Change!
A youngster on the ‘Be The Change’ programme in India filling in the lifestyle contract.
For three years Johnson Matthey has supported Peace Child International’s ‘Be The Change!’ programme in India. ‘Be The Change’ is a web-based, youth-led sustainable development action programme which encourages young people to devise low cost community improvement projects and carry them out.
The students – all of them under 25 – devise workshops covering three areas: Hygiene – the body, the home and the meal; Nutrition – food groups and meal building; and First Aid. Each workshop includes practical exercises to help the students remember the lessons learned and be able to pass it on to others.
Below are a few examples of the pledges written and agreed by students in urban and rural schools to help improve their community:
Pledges from children in rural schools
I will drink a glass of milk at least once every week.
I will wear footwear whenever I go outside the house.
I will tell five people about Vitamin A, E, C, D, iron and calcium and tell them how it helps the body.
I will make ten of my peers pledge that that they will never touch tobacco.
Pledges from children in urban schools
I will not eat junk food and collect the money I would have spent to buy and donate toothbrushes to underprivileged children.
I will raise funds and materials to donate a drinking water container and water filter to one village school.
I will donate ten pairs of footwear to street children in my locality.
Johnson Matthey’s funding is also used to support a similar ‘Be The Change’ programme in the Royston area in the UK. The company will continue to provide funding to support the excellent work of the programme in both the UK and in India.
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