Footprints in Carbon – ZOC
On Sunday, 5th June 2022, World Environment Day, St. Stanislaus School was invited to the Zero Out Carbon Event hosted by St. Andrew’s Center for Philosophy and Performing Arts (SAPP).
Teacher Sharon D’silva and two students from Grade 10, Chelsy Vaz and Shruti Dsilva attended the ZOC Event. The program started with a play performance titled “I want to be a hummingbird” written and directed by Dr. Omkar Bhatkar which was based on the story by Wangari Mathaai. In the story, the hummingbird tried to put out a raging forest fire by carrying water in its tiny little beak, not bothered by its small size. We relate this story to our current environmental situation where each one of us has to do our best to save our nature. The play was followed by an exhibition created by a Swedish organization.
The play was mind-blowing and a huge learning experience for the two students. It inculcated concepts of
eco-feminism and questioned several concepts so readily accepted by society. During the first half of the performance, the set was black resembling our pollution-filled world. Once the curtains opened up, we saw a beautiful eco-friendly set made with dried flowers, recycled newspapers, and 300 hand-made hummingbirds.
After the play, there was a short talk with Ms. Anna Ehn, a Nature Litter Expert from the Keep Sweden Tidy foundation where she shared innovative and ingenious ways to fight littering. The exhibition displayed a lot of information in a creative and simple method. The most important lesson of all is that convenience is not always the best solution for our environment.
When asked what they liked about the event, Shruti D’silva said, “They mentioned Emily Dickinson, Rachel Carson, and Wangari Maathai which made me happy because it’s nice to envision young students getting to know all these ecofeminists, especially since so often in history women have been silenced and questioned”.
Chelsy Vaz enthusiastically mentioned that, ‘The message of the hummingbird is so powerful in a simple way… doing the best one can in the face of impossible odds. In these changing times, our world needs each of us to know that we can make a difference.”
Let us all go forth and be hummingbirds for we must nurture our nature to have a bright future!
Article written by Shruti D’silva and Chelsy Vaz
Photographs taken by Aditya Rawat, Isha Shrigiri, Sidhant Jadhav, Prathi Chopda, Harshvardhan Shetye
