Saturday, March 31, 2012

Inspiring other lake clean-ups

We received this email message from Paul M of the Deshpande Foundation, Hubli and are delighted that we are inspiring others to replicate our efforts at Puttenahalli Lake.

Paul and his friends already have the biggest trump card to make them succeed - enthusiasm. We at PNLIT have assured them of our support and guidance to save their lake.

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31st March 2012

Hello,

I was completing some research about lake clean up projects when I discovered your website and was extremely excited and inspired to find out about your excellent project. I work as a teacher in the social entrepreneurship program at an NGO called the Deshpande Foundation in Hubli.

We are currently undertaking one project where we would like to clean up our local lake called Unkal and also provide assistance and business opportunities for the local community. I was very very inspired by your project and believe that its success could be a model for other similar projects like our own.

The corporation has some involvement in the lake as they are trying to complete a park on one side of it however they are not currently providing enough clean-up or assistance to the local community. The situation is quite serious because not only are local people dumping their rubbish in the lake but there are also young boys swimming and fishing amongst the trash (picture below). The community is facing many problems and we are currently collecting data about education, employment etc.

The task ahead of us is absolutely huge but I feel that by having a contact with a project such as yours could provide us with some guidance and direction. We would like to study more about your project, your project plan, how it was implemented and the problems you encountered. If there is any data, documents or personal advice you can share with us then we would be extremely grateful. For example, if you had any reports or recording of information (In English, Kannada or Hindi) then that could be very useful for us. Some of your ideas such as the cloth bag initiative are absolutely excellent and could also provide some assistance to us.

It is very sad for us to see such a wonderful resource in the city being misused and slowly disappearing. We have great enthusiasm and willingness, we also have 25 individuals with varying experience in community projects however with some of your knowledge we may be able to direct our project in the right direction.

I hope to hear from you soon and that this will be the beginning of a long and fruitful connection.

Thank you for your help,
Paul

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