Over the past six months, Prabha Ramesh has helped build four terrace gardens and inspired 12 people to start composting from their kitchen waste. Through home visits, calls and follow-ups, these citizens are urged to contribute towards reducing the burden on landfills.
Prabha is a volunteer with Project Vilvam, initiated by the President of Inner Wheel District 323 Kamala Selvam. In addition to creating a kitchen or rooftop garden, these volunteers encourage others to follow their example, and also show them how to go about it. Through this work they have impacted homes, schools, service-based organizations and individuals. For an initiative that started in June, it has covered a lot. “We have 56 clubs in the district and we would have done well in more than 40 government schools in the last six months,” says Sheetal Satish, project coordinator of Vilvam.
She noted that in the past, the club was associated with the majority of these institutions, which aids in the smooth execution of the ongoing project.
Club members also work extensively with old age homes. “At an old age home in Mylapore, produce from the backyard was being fed to seniors,” says Sheetal.
The big goal of this project is to ensure that every household segregates their waste and also does composting in their premises. Prabha, club coordinator of Chennai Symphony’s Inner Wheel Club, says, “I live in an apartment where there is no normal facility to compost biodegradable waste, but I have a 20 liter bucket which works for us. ”
Vilvam is not goal-oriented; Nor are there any plans to award prizes to the best-maintained gardens. Sheetal says, “This is just an initiative to create awareness and we hope this will be an ongoing project for the club.”
How is the progress of the initiative tracked? There are frequent updates on the WhatsApp group on the progress made by each club.
Prabha says, “Every club has a coordinator and the four clubs are headed by a project coordinator. Every month, a progress report reviewing the work is shared.”
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