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Another important activity that Eco Friends carries out is to inculcate eco-consciousness and generate awareness among the youth, especially school children, college students, teachers and youth undergoing training at vocational institutes. This Eco Friends accomplishes through lectures, presentations, seminars, workshops, meetings, outreach programmes like visits to pollution hotspots and important pollution control installations and distribution of educational aid and publicity materials like handbills, stickers, posters, banners, slides, CDs etc. The idea behind this activity is to prepare environmentally informed and responsible future citizens.
Eco Friends started its activities with educational and awareness programs in the educational institutions of Kanpur in 1993. So far, Eco Friends has organized talks, lectures, contests (debates, essays, quizzes, slogans, posters, skits, green cards, green newspapers, green nooks and so on), workshops, seminars, conferences, role playing games (eco-court, eco-parliament) and various outreach programs for more than 100 educational institutions. Eco Friends has organized campaigns against vehicular pollution, polybags menace, population explosion, and solid waste with an active and enthusiastic participation of young students.
Young students have played a key role in popularizing Eco Friends, disseminating its message and making various campaigns successful and effective. Eco Friends formed an Alliance for a Responsible and United Kanpur comprising various educational institutions in 1998. The Alliance aims to prepare the citizens of Kanpur to have a definite environmental vision for Kanpur. Eco Friends recently carried out a signature campaign in the schools and colleges of Kanpur. More than 15,000 signatures were sent to the President of India along with a letter demanding a Ganga Vision and urging him to visit Kanpur and see for himself the plight of the river Ganga. The idea behind this campaign was not just advocacy and lobbying, but also education and awareness.
Eco Friends has formed Ganga Ambassadors in various educational institutions of Kanpur. Ganga Ambassadors are involved in monitoring of Ganga and GAP and spreading the message of a clean Ganga and environment in their neighborhoods and peer circle.
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