Jump to content

Association for Social and Environmental Development

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by GermanJoe (talk | contribs) at 14:16, 31 July 2018 (rmv - "Publications" should be a list of selected and "noteworthy" publications, fix link templates). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Association for Social and Environmental Development
Company typeNon-profit Organisation
FoundedSeptember 2001
FoundersDiti Mookherjee and Rekha Basu
Headquarters
Kolkata
,
India
Area served
Kolkata, Delhi, Odisha, Hisar, and Sunderbans
Websitewww.asedkol.org

The Association for Social and Environmental Development (ASED) is an Indian non-profit organisation headquartered in Kolkata, West Bengal, India and registered under Section 25 of the Indian Companies Act. It promotes nature conservation and an ecologically resilient society, and undertakes programmes for school students.

ASED has worked with over 200 schools across the country. It has three flagship programmes, the "Green Rhinos" programme, "Nature Smart" and "Nature Club". These programmes are conducted under the guidance of the Chief Executive Officer, Diti Mookherjee, a Fulbright-Nehru Fellow for Environmental Leadership.[1]

History

Founded by Diti Mookherjee and Rekha Basu on 7 September 2001, the Association for Social and Environmental Development (ASED) was established in order to actively engage youth in nature conservation in a sustained manner.[2]

Approach

The Association for Social and Environmental Development upholds three core values, which it abides by in order to fulfil its goal of nature conservation through youth empowerment. The organisation prides itself on being authentic, caring and most importantly, youth-friendly. Its authentic and receptive nature makes it dependable and trustworthy. Moreover, it being youth-friendly allows students to express themselves freely and promotes collaboration among them. As facilitators and not teachers, the organisation looks to promote the health and well-being of students through its various campaigns. It believes in developing students’ skills through informal, hands-on activities such as discussions, interactive games, surveys and field trips. What makes the organisation efficient in realizing the above is setting short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals.[3]

Programmes

Green Rhinos Programme

Launched in April 2012, the Green Rhinos programme[4] envisions the existence of an Earth in which the youth, acting as a community, adopts a lifestyle which is ecologically resilient in nature. The programme hopes to fulfil the above objective through the creation of youth nature leaders involved in nature conversation through a transformational leadership process. The success of various biodiversity-related projects conducted by the Association for Social and Environmental Development extending from 2004-2010 convinced the Chief Executive Officer of the organisation, Diti Mookherjee, to initiate a structured programme which would involve the active participation of students to develop their own projects relating to conservation. Thus, supported by the Rufford Foundation,[5][6][7] the Green Rhinos programme was established in several schools in the Sundarbans in 2012 after which it was extended to Kolkata, Delhi, Orissa, and Hisar as well to include a total of 17 schools.

Methodology Summary Diagram FINAL-page-001

The methodology [8] of the programme involves the formation of a Green Rhinos team comprising fifty ‘nature smart’ middle school students and two mentors. After nature orientation, seminars, audio-visual presentations, discussions and interactive games, the students are provided with the necessary tools required to create school-based projects which are to be executed in six months. The ASED team helps them to gain access to resources during the stipulated period and once the ten-month program cycle is completed, a ‘sharing workshop’ is held and the Green Rhinos receive a badge and certificate. The efforts of the organisation have resulted in the creation of over 3500 Green Rhinos who have successfully conducted various projects such as raising two thousand saplings and planting and nurturing as many as twenty thousand trees in the Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve and creating a butterfly garden within the Maheshtala Girls High School campus.[9]

Nature Club

The ‘Nature Club’ campaign was initiated in 2015 with a view to assist students to establish nature clubs in their schools.These Nature Clubs will allow students to engage in knowledge sharing and action to protect and enhance the natural environment in which they live.

ASED can support the process of establishing a nature club in a school in the following ways:

1. Orienting the school authorities and concerned teachers on the process of initiating and establishing a nature club.

2. Drawing up session plans for the nature club.

3. Providing subject experts to conduct sessions on topics like bird-watching, observing butterflies, observing trees, etc.

4. Providing activity coordinators to conduct sessions on activities like playing nature games, nature quiz, making items from waste products, etc.

5. Training the concerned teachers on how to conduct activities on their own with the students through information sharing, exposure to activities being conducted by ASED in other schools, access to resource materials, etc.

Nature Smart

A unique campaign aimed at focusing on the development of the health and well-being of children, the 'Nature Smart School', is an upcoming initiative of ASED. It will be launched in mid-2017 and will focus on children in the age group of 8–11 years. The primary objective of the campaign is to inculcate in students an elementary understanding of nature around them, and to arouse their curiosity and creativity. Thus, through outdoor imaginative play, nature visits, gardening, nature-inspired stories and other similar activities, Nature Smart looks to increase students' proximity to nature, and their skills of observation and data-collection.

Awards Won

  • Certificate of Recognition for Commitment towards the Environment awarded to the Green Rhinos on Earth Day at Salt Lake Sector V by Infinity Benchmark, 2017.[citation needed]
  • Membership of The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) awarded to the Association for Social and Environmental Development.[10]

The CEO of ASED, Diti Mookherjee, has won a number of awards for the work she has done for the organisation. They include:

  • "2013 Leader of Impact" Finalist by the Global Women’s Leadership Network.[citation needed]
  • Certificate of Completion with regard to the Women Leaders for the World Program by Santa Clara, California, United States, December 2011.[citation needed]
  • Certificate of Recognition for (her) contribution in spreading awareness on environmental issues by The Rotary Club of Calcutta.[citation needed]
  • Best poster on project "Conserving the Biodiversity of West Bengal with school students" awarded to Diti Mookherjee as a participant in the Living Knowledge 2009 Conference held at the Queen's University, Belfast from 27 to 29 August 2009.

References

  1. ^ http://www.asedkol.org/aboutus.html
  2. ^ http://india.ashoka.org/how-does-green-rhinos-program-intend-create-youth-nature-leaders
  3. ^ http://www.asedkol.org/Docs/ASED_Methodology.pdf
  4. ^ https://medium.com/green-rhinos
  5. ^ http://www.rufford.org/
  6. ^ http://www.rufford.org/projects/diti_mookherjee_0
  7. ^ http://www.rufford.org/rsg/Projects/DitiMookherjee
  8. ^ *http://india.ashoka.org/how-does-green-rhinos-program-intend-create-youth-nature-leaders
  9. ^ https://www.facebook.com/GreenRhinos/
  10. ^ https://undocs.org/E/2013/NGO/10
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Association_for_Social_and_Environmental_Development&oldid=852808908"