Garbyhog Home Builders Club ( An Environment Awareness Project for Schools )
What is a Garbyhog Home Builders Club ?

Garbyhog Home Builder’s Club is a fun learning method of instilling in students abhorrence for our garbage littered way of city living and showing them a practical way out (vermi-composting).

The club aims at capturing the imagination of children through an entertaining and informative storybook, rousing their enthusiasm through fun filled activities and teaching them through a practical project within the school premises. It becomes all the more relevant today with CBSE’s emphasis on practical environment education.

GHB Clubs not only teach children that waste need not be wasted but also inculcate in them respect and understanding that even the lowliest creature on God’s earth - the composter worm - has an extremely valuable contribution to make and that humans can best live in harmony with nature and not by misusing or exploiting it. The practical project is also a hands-on lesson in biology.

What Are Garbyhogs ?

An endearing character named Garbie™ Garbyhog™ has been created specifically for this project. The word Garbyhog is a term coined to denote worms that devour garbage and turn it into valuable compost. The term is designed to catch a child’s imagination.

What Are Garbyhog Homes ?

Garbyhog Homes are vermi composting beds in which Garbyhogs live, feed on garbage and produce nutrient rich compost. They also multiply very rapidly.

The Working of GHB Clubs

Club Activities

1. Inauguration
Fifty Student Members are enrolled. They could be from any class the school deems fit. We recommend Class VII. Out of these the school will nominate a Captain, a Vice Captain and four Group Leaders. The remaining 44 children would be divided into four groups. This is necessary for Group Activities. The Starter Kit is handed out.
The Starter Kit comprising Fifty Club Badges and Fifty copies of a Book titled ‘Garbie Garbyhog – The Worm That Wanted To Fly’, are handed out. Each student member is given a book and a badge.
An illustrated paper back with a lively four-colour cover, the book is the inspiring story of an endearing worm named Garbie Garbyhog. The book includes a 12-page illustrated colour booklet, giving detailed instructions on

a. Building a Garbyhog Home (vermi composting beds)
b. Feeding Garbyhogs
c. Managing a Garbyhog home
d. Harvesting the nutrient rich manure.

The teacher is also provided with a detailed Guideline for Club Activities.

Student members make a Garbyhog Home and a Garbyhog Kitchen (Vermi bed and Feeder Bed). The beds are made by simply placing two rows of bricks one on top of each other in a 3’ x 3’ square on the surface of the ground and require no digging. The beds are made in any small shaded area in the school front or back garden. The site chosen needs to have easy access to a water point.

2. Getting Beds Ready for Garbyhogs to come home
For the next fifteen-twenty days student members water and aerate the leaves till they are softened.

3. Garbyhogs Homecoming
Composter worms are introduced and a talk on vermi-composting is given to the students.

4. Other Activities
Garbyhogs take approximately two months to produce the first lot of compost. During this time the student members paint posters; make collages or decorative objects with waste; participate in quizzes and debates; use the Internet to research on environment related topics and produce a PPT; stage skits etc.

5. Certification
On successful completion of the Project within the allotted time frame, the School and each Student Member are awarded Certificates.

Budget

Start up kit
Comprising fifty books, fifty badges, and Guidelines for Club Activities
Rs 5000/- (Five Thousand only).

Additional Costs
The school could procure the following items on its own or could request Environment Education Promoters to do so.
Two kgs of Composter Worms (Rs. 250/- per kg) - Rs 500/-
One Sieve, one Panji and six pairs of gloves - Rs 300/-
Banner - Rs 200/-
One Hundred Bricks – School to Procure.
Visits - One inaugural visit is provided free of cost. At this visit a demo of the entire process is shown which can easily be followed by the school. No further visits are normally required. Should the school require any further visits these would be billed at Rs. 500/- per visit.


Modern School, Barakhamba Road


Government School, Harola


Environment Education Promoters – a brief profile

Environment Education Promoters is a Resource Centre for Environment Education.

Its first project, Garbyhog Home Builders Club, has been accepted with great enthusiasm by schools. Since its inception in end September 2005, the project is already underway/completed in more than thirty private schools in Noida and Greater Noida and New Delhi. It has also been completed in 12 Government schools of GB Nagar.

EEP is the brainchild of a group of environmentalist, educators, industrialists and creative people who have come together with the sole intention of doing something to ensure that resurgent India of the future also emerges as a clean India and that children grow up aware of the compelling need to live in harmony with nature.

Key People
Veena Nagpal - A writer with two published novels and three books for children to her credit. A free-lance journalist with over a thousand articles and short stories published in leading Indian newspapers and magazines and a PR professional with almost twenty years of experience in Corporate Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility.

Cdr. VK Nagpal (Indian Navy Retd.) - Vice President for the past four years of a Noida based NGO, operating in the area of solid waste management, specifically vermi-composting.

Mentor
Rear Admiral HC Malhotra - After a long and distinguished career with the Indian Navy, Admiral Malhotra, has committed himself to social and community welfare, specifically environment issues. He is the Convenor of the Noida Citizen’s Forum.

Advisor
Mr. Viney Sahgal - A committed patron for the group, Mr. Sahgal is the owner-Managing Director of Quality Needles Pvt. Ltd., an export oriented unit manufacturing surgical suture needles, a critical and precision item. A dedicated environmentalist, Mr Sehgal is President of the Noida Small Industries Association, Co-Convenor of the Noida Citizen’s Forum and is actively associated with the All India Manufacturer’s Organisation.

Consultant
Mr. ML Babbar - Presently a consultant to several schools and educational foundations, Mr. ML Babbar is an eminent and highly acclaimed educationist. He has been Chairman of the National Progressive Schools’ Conference and Member Executive Body-NCERT and Governing Body—NCERT, CBSE, SCERT, KVS. Highly awarded, he has been closely associated with several high powered policy making committees—New Education Policy 1986, Committees for curriculum development, transaction strategies, examination reforms, evaluation, teacher training etc.

Associates
Besides a number of social activists who have been helping us, the project has also received the support of the following Organizations from time to time:

TERI
NTPC
Times of India Group
The Indian Navy
DM Gautam Budh Nagar
Yamaha Motors
Quality Needles Pvt Ltd
Kailash Group of Hospitals
Mangalmay Institute of Management and Technology
Lions Club
Dainik Jagran
Frank Brothers Publishers
Indian Pollution Control Association (NGO)
Citizens Environment Improvement Society (NGO)
Centre for Environment Education (NGO)


Contact Information
Please feel free to call Veena Nagpal or Cdr. VK Nagpal at 95120-4340493 or 9811109798(mobile).
It would be our pleasure to meet you personally to discuss this proposal.


GHB Club Members with the President

Join Us    

Download IWC Android app     IWC Android app



Copyright © 2001 - 2024 Indian Wildlife Club. All Rights Reserved. | Terms of Use

Website developed and managed by Alok Kaushik