Clean Mutthathi Trip with Honeywell : 14 Jun 2008

Number of Volunteers : 28 from Honeywell + 4 from Clean and Green

- Trip Briefing:

On Saturday, we all went by bus for a Clean and Green cleanup drive to Muthathi. We left Bangalore at about 8 am and reached Kanakapura about an hour later, and we halted for a hot breakfast at Ratna Upahara, our customary joint! The other bus with Roopa and the medical camp volunteers went independently to Alathahalli village.

Post-breakfast, we arrived in Muthathi village, and drove up to the picnic spot, where all of us alighted, and brought out the rakes, sacks and gloves. Sandeep gave all the Honeywell volunteers a short briefing about the different kinds of plastic to be picked up...bottles, plastic covers and cups, composites like Kurkure packets, and so on. He advised them not to pick up glass, to drink plenty of water, and use gloves if necessary.

The volunteers fanned out and began working with a will. Meanwhile the Range Forest Officer, Mr Kempe Gowda was invited over to the site. He came along with a few of his colleagues, and inspected the work going on. He also gave Sandeep the quotation for making boards at the picnic site. Clean and Green is glad for this support from the Forest Dept, and hope to be able to put up the signboards and place some waste bins soon.

Several visitors to the picnic spot were curious about our work. "How much are you getting for all the stuff you are collecting?" one lady asked Deepa. The concept of cleaning up the waste, and how it might affect the area if left unclean was explained to her. She looked thoughtful as she left!

It was great to see the Honeywell volunteers working so hard. Mutthathi needs as many volunteers as we can have for every clean up. All of us stopped from time to time to exchange jokes, drink water, or wash our faces...it was rather hot, dusty and sweaty work. The volunteers displayed great enthusiasm!

The work went on until about 1.30pm, when all the trash that was collected was stuffed into the HDPE bags, which were sewn up, and weighed. This was also great fun, with Sandeep asking, "how much will THIS sack weigh?" and estimates being made loudly, from 10 to 30 kg (that particular sack weighed 12 kg) We found that 31 volunteers had collected 74 kg of plastic!

All of us then got into the bus and adjourned to the Forest Department campus, where we all had a much needed wash and then had the delicious lunch which Honeywell had brought along. We also invited Mr Kempe Gowda and his colleagues to join us. Meanwhile, Sandeep had made a very valuable contact.

Mr D C Raju, a social worker who works for an NGO, and who is a member of the EDC (Environmental Development Council.) His mobile no. is 98456 02265, and his landline (residence) no is 08231 698002. He has promised to let us know, a week in advance, when the next EDC meet is going to be. Getting our foot in the door at the EDC meeting is very important for us to have a dialogue with the villagers, so this contact is really important.

So leaving some people to clear up lunch and wind up at the Forest Dept, the rest of us set off on the walk. On the way, we saw a goddess astride a tiger being taken in a procession to the river.

The road to Bheemeshwari was green and beautiful, as it meandered along the banks of the Cauvery. We had lovely view, and we really enjoyed walking along.

At the JLR camp there, we were unable to meet Lokesh,but met Mr Pampapati, and told him about the trash waiting to be collected at the usual place. Some of the volunteers had a look at the JLR property (oh, the Giant Grizzled Squirrel was very much in evidence today!) and then we all drove back contentedly to Bangalore.

All in all, the cleanup part of the day was a great success, and I got to meet several people and exchange views.

Kind of plastic collected:

The usual Bottles of Water, and other beverages, Ghutka Wrappers and other variants of it, plastic cups, plates, food content wrappers, soft drink bottles, soft drink cups.

- Amount of Plastic collected in volume and weight: 74 Kgs of plastic

Clean up Mutthathi with Honeywell

Week of Giving in Jun by Honeywell. The second time with Clean and Green. In tandem a Health Camp at another village in Mallavalli District.

Honeywell's CSR group joined hands with Clean and Green again to conduct a Clean up trip to Mutthathi on 14th Jun 2008.

There has been a lot of activity since Apr. Sun Micosystems Clean up at Sangama, Kiosk at HP, Presentation at Wipro and now again a cleanup with Honeywell at Mutthathi.

Medical Camp at Allathahalli : 14 Jun 2008

The Honeywell as part of their Week of Giving, on 14 Jun also organised a medical camp at a village close to Mallavalli, called Allathahalli ..

Close to 800 villagers were assembled at the school village to greet the volunteer team when the team reached at about 10am. Young, old, men, women.. educated, aware, completely unaware.. there were all of them. Waiting to pour their woes and get free medicines..

We assembled to for a bit of a "do", of lighting the lamp and soon after that school children were engaged in various competions. In the meantime, the doctors - a GP, a Gyeanec, Optho, Nuero, ENT and Dentist setup their respective consultation rooms. Each of these rooms were assigned numbers. The volunteers setup benches where the people were recieved, name, age, weight were entered in slip. The volunteers would ask the people what the primary complaint was and put the room number they had to go for consultation to.

For the very old a volunteer would lead them by hand to the room they had to meet the doctor at. Much commotion prevailed all through the day, as the weary people did not want to wait their turn. The problem was, they had assembled at 6am for the medical camp to start. Yet the volunteers tried to streamline the people/patients to some extent. This was extremely tiring but the exchanges were generally pleasant during the entire transaction.

Breaking up for lunch proved even more difficult as the patients all wanted to sure, they were examined before we left.
The wash up, the simple lunch at the caterer's house (who works on a contract basis with Honeywell), the simple hospitality, the amble back to the school made one feel very welcome in the community. Genuine respect for what the volunteer represented felt appropriate.

Time at the dispensary that was setup was very well thought out.. The recieving of the prescription, filling it out, the handing it out the correct patient, explaining the dosage, worked well, almost without hitches. The experience of setting up a mobile medical camp. the logistics involved, the coordination that takes place in the background to put together a camp of this size, which appeared effortless, was am sure an outcome of tireless work by many in Honeywell.

Clean and Green Kiosk at HP : 9th and 10th Jun 08

World Environment Week !! Here we come ! Sharing the same space as the Environment espousing giants such as WWF. Clean and Green made its presence the large cafeteria of HP in their CV Raman Nagar facility.

A small table, a few pictures a banner and a few spirited volunteers behind the desk complete the picture of the Clean and Green kiosk at HP.

With interested employees coming to the kiosk to get more information about the group, the common comment has been .. this is a wonderful initiative.

The whole exercise enabled Clean and Green to socialise its philosophy with the HP employees. Some of the enthused employees are now members on the e-group of Clean and Green

Fotos on display at the Kiosk :