TEAM Observed Earth Day with the Local Gangkyi Community

Dharamsala, 22 April 2008: Tesi Environmental Awareness Movement (TEAM) today celebrated Earth Day with the theme Let's End Trash Burning In Our Community. The event commenced at 9 am with a special prayer at Gadhong Monastery for the healing of Mother Earth. After the prayer session a mass clean up was carried out along the Khara Danda Road by the TEAM staff and volunteers.

The afternoon event started at 2 pm with a three-session workshop on Global Warming, Waste Management and Compost Making for the 35 janitors from the offices of the Tibetan Government-in-exile (TGIE) and 20 representatives from each family of the Ratoe neighborhood where TEAM office is located.

Through PowerPoint presentations the workshop participants were introduced to the global environmental problems especially global warming and later showed them how each individual can contribute towards environmental conservation. A general presentation on waste management including 3R concept (reduce, reuse, and recycle) was familiarized and later the participants were shown the current status of waste management in our own Gangkyi area. Images from the recent TGIE's cleanup event on the World Health Day, 7April 2008, were shown where biodegradable trash including grass and twigs were burned and at the end of the clean up everyone was served fizzy drinks and cakes in styrofoam cups and plastic plates.

At the end of the event everyone was shown how to compost their own kitchen wastes and each family of the Ratoe community was given a bucket each to collect biodegradable wastes at home. They were also introduced to the TEAM's Rotating Composter and requested them to bring their waste to TEAM for composting.

One participant, a TGIE janitor who wants to remain anonymous, said, "This is my first time invited to a workshop in all these years of work and I didn't know that I could learn so much about waste management in such a short period and I would like to thank TEAM for organizing such an event and for inviting us with such a great hospitality". Another, Mrs. Tseten Dolkar, a green worker, said, "this workshop was very powerful and every Tibetan must attend your workshop in order to learn from our mistakes. For those of us who handle trash everyday as a job gained a special pride for our work as this is the best service for Mother Earth." Mrs. Dolma, another TGIE janitor, said, "composting part was the best because it could truly save us from burning papers and yard wastes. As a Buddhist I always felt bad burning trash as it kills so many bugs, but now I learned to compost and composting can feed and save so many lives. So thank you organizers".

TEAM is a non-profit environmental organization with a mission to revive the ecological consciousness of the Tibetan people.