NGO spreads awareness on open spaces

With the city’s open spaces shrinking at an alarming rate, United Way, Mumbai, a non-government organisation, has launched an initiative to spread awareness about the importance of public parks among students.

With the city’s open spaces shrinking at an alarming rate, United Way, Mumbai, a non-government organisation, has launched an initiative to spread awareness about the importance of public parks among students.

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As part of the project, Mumbai Helpline, United Way Mumbai has been holding workshops and competitions on the theme of open spaces at various schools in the city.

“Mumbai hardly has places, where one can just sit and enjoy the cool evening breeze. We want to mobilise the youth and inform them regarding the importance of open spaces,” said Jayanti Shukla, executive director, United Way, Mumbai.

“We want to inform and educate young children. We will involve them in cleaning public parks or open spaces that come under the jurisdiction of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC),” said Shukla.

The project is aimed at communicating the importance of open spaces and cleanliness through an interactive way. Beginning next week, the NGO will educate children in the age group of 13 to 15 years on how to maintain parks. It will organise workshops and competitions on the theme of open spaces with the help of experts in the fields of photography, mural making, cinema and theatre.

“We are planning to target 200 children in more than 40 schools in Mumbai,” said Shukla.