“Our biggest challenge in this new century is to take an idea that seems abstract – sustainable development and turn it into a reality for all the world’s people.”-Kofi Annan
Sustainable development refers to human developments that meet our current needs, without undermining the nature’s ability to provide for the generations to come. The term sustainability acts as the unifying principle for accomplishing our development goals, while still ensuring we don’t exhaust natural resources for coming generations. On behalf of the Embassy of Switzerland in India and in collaboration with Quiz craft Global, SAI International compered an insightful ‘Swiss It On Wheels’ workshop on July 22, 2022 as a part of their flagship project under the official Swiss Diplomatic Network in India. The SAIoneers of Classes VII-IX proactively participated in numerous ingenious activities planned for them under the workshop.
The sheer concept of a project bus touring (virtually & physically) through 28 Indian cities, aiming to engage with young adults (13-18 years) to further foster sustainability amidst them from an early age through talks, films, activities & hands-on experiments was refreshing and stuck with the students. The Team's objective to create more awareness about transcending concerns such as water pollution, air pollution, increasing scarcity of water etc by coming up with a methodology that entails students to conduct hands on experiments as a part of their workshops promotes experiential learning among the young minds who will turn up to be the change makers of the future by making more sustainable choices.
The one-day enlightening & diverting workshop was held from 8:00am-1:30pm in the Indraprastha Auditorium. The SAIoneers from got an opportunity to understand the true crux of sustainable choices and how to mitigate big challenges such as global warming & pollution through simple yet bijou adaptations at their homes and school. The students were given notepads by the Swiss Team to jot down their take-aways from the workshop, and immersed into fun activities such as designing innovation T-shirts on the central theme of sustainability, preparing eco-friendly bags from simple stuff at home to promote the concept of recycle & reuse and playing intriguing versions of snakes and ladders. Furthermore, the students learnt about low-tech clean solutions to counter indoor pollution, simplify waste segregation, measure one’s carbon footprint and so on. The Swiss Team showcased smart Swiss eco-solutions with operations and partners in India such as Lifestraw water filter & many more. As the name suggests, 'Swiss It on Wheels', this project bus brought in a slice of Swissness right into the preises of SAI International School, and chose the most unconventional ways for sensitising students & flourishing a spirit of positive concern on how to care for their immediate environment.
As a whole, it was an ingeniously designed, enterprising workshop for the students of Class VIII & IX which certainly gave them a window to perceive sustainability differently & exhorted students to mindfully pursue & practice the SDGs set by the UN in order to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.