HAND IN HAND WINS THE UNEP’S WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY CHALLENGE 2012

Resorting to an age-old traditional art form, Hand in Hand India roots for a Green World

Hand in Hand India’s entry for the World Environment Day (WED) Challenge, 2012, organised by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), won the ‘Most Creative, Unique and Fun’ prize. The organisation wins a Kia Motors fuel efficient/hybrid vehicle as an award.

For WED, Hand in Hand India brought together around 570 volunteers to create a colourful Rangoli carpet based on environmental themes. The 10,000 sq.ft. Rangoli depicted ten environmental themes using the traditional art form, aiming to encourage and create environment awareness among people.

For this year’s WED, people across the world were challenged to come up with innovative ideas to help raise environmental awareness across the globe. Five projects were chosen as the winners of this challenge. The other winners were from Colombia, Kenya, Australia and Bangladesh.

Link to UNEP.ORG and UNEP News Centre

The TIMKEN Partnership

The ‘Safe Water for Rural Poor’ project is funded by the TIMKEN Foundation and is being implemented by Hand in Hand India. The main objective of the project is to install water purification plants and provide bore wells in villages and schools in Kancheepuram district where there is no supply of clean drinking water.

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Hand in Hand's Intervention at Mamallapuram SWM project

Hand in Hand initiated its Solid Waste Management (SWM) Project at the historic town of Mamallapuram in January 2008. Through this initiative, about 60 percent of the nearly four metric tonnes of waste produced everyday is processed. The degradable waste is converted to vermicompost and the non-degradable, recyclable wastes are segregated and sold to respective recyclers. In addition to the waste management initiative in the town, Hand in Hand, in association with the town panchayat, also worked on banning disposable plastics in Mamallapuram. The highlight of the SWM Project, however, is the setting up of a 100 cubic meter bio-methanation plant with a capacity of handling 500 to 800 kilograms of food waste every day. The food waste is converted to methane which is in turn converted to electricity.

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