India
Volunteers will be based in Delhi and Rajasthan working with two organisations: 

Swechha is a Delhi based not-for-profit organisation that has been working on environmental and active
citizenship issues with the youth for over a decade. Founded in 2000, it strives to inspire action, using awareness, communication, training and advocacy as primary tools – reaching out to over a 100 thousand young people every year. Several national and international volunteers are currently working with us on a wide range of programmes and we hope to increase and upscale such associations through ICS.

India having 18% of the world's population has greatly increased the pressure on its natural resources. Uncontrolled, unplanned urbanization has left city infrastructures under stress to the point where problems of environmental degradation - primarily garbage, sanitation, poor health and housing facilities, industrial pollution and congestion - seem insurmountable. Rural communities face constant threats from several corporate centric development projects that degrade the environment and force the local populace to migrate to urban centers. This calls for education, advocacy and awareness initiatives in both urban and rural environments which is where the volunteers will be working. 

Community action day in Amargh 

For our Community Action Day we decided to hold a cleanup day of Amagarh, the slum community where
we have been volunteering. The idea came from the community themselves which we got from community house visits, people were concerned the rubbish everywhere in the community was leading to many health problems, especially with kids playing in the sewers and in piles of rubbish.

We raised awareness by involving the school, holding workshops with the kids about waste and recycling and creating a drama with a group of children. They were massively enthusiastic and created anti- littering posters and distributing them among the community. There was a lot of preparation for the day which included lots of community meetings and buying all the materials needed which included 400 pairs of gloves, bin bags and lots of brooms and huge rakes.

On the actual day the school was closed so that all the children and teachers could be involved. At 08:30
there were already lots of children outside the school and lots had to be done, with a mic and speakers arriving and a stage to be set up. By the time the children were due to start their drama, around 400 people had gathered. It was amazing to see them so enthusiastic, the kids were then divided into 20 groups and we then got on stage and attempted to give out the materials to everyone. It was easier said than done as all the kids clambered on stage to try to get gloves. There was a real electricity in the air and the sense of community spirit was overwhelming.

The teams then headed off to their locations armed with their cleaning materials and everyone was amazing, especially the children who would scrape anything out of the gutters, I was even handed a dead bird at one stage! It seemed that the whole community knew about the cleanup day but even those who didn’t came out of their houses to join the crowd in the streets.

Despite the blazing heat everyone continued until their area was clean and everyone returned to the school proud of their achievements and the children all crammed into the tiny wash room to clean up and cool down.

After the excitement of the day had calmed down we had a meeting with community members and spoke
about the success of the day and the community were going to set up a committee to help sustain it and put pressure on the local council to collect the rubbish more regularly. One community member said the day had been an inspiration for them to keep it clean in the future. This was amazing to hear and exactly what we had wanted to achieve from the day!