Volunteers with Caritas India are commonly known as “Caritas Samaritans”. According to Cambridge English dictionary, the word “Samaritan” means a person who helps the one in need. Caritas India envisages its volunteers as social change agents rendering their services to the community in need. Being interested in social work brought us close to Caritas India, myself and others joined as volunteers in the month of April. During our volunteer association with Caritas we were engaged in various activities such as Earth Day Network, Awareness on Climate Change, Plantation drive, Cleanliness drive, etc.

Recently as part of Earth Day Network Campaign Seva Kendra Arunachal East in collaboration with Caritas India organized drawing and essay writing competitions for the School Children of Balinong village “Environmental Protection and Climate Change”.  Students from different schools and colleges took part for the competition. “When we care for our nature, mother earth will care return. It will not let us suffer as our own mothers don’t let her children suffer”, said Mr. Batang Mossang, Caritas Samaritan.

According to a study 9% of all plastic waste ever produced has been recycled. About 12% has been incinerated, while the rest — 79% — has accumulated in landfills, dumps or the natural environment. Cigarette butts — whose filters contain tiny plastic fibres — are the most common type of plastic waste found in the environment in a recent global survey. Drink bottles, bottle caps, food wrappers, grocery bags, drink lids, straws were the next most common items.

Sr. Sunita the director of SKAE spoke on environmental conservation and climate change, in gist of her speech, she said that our mother earth needs our care as brothers and sisters to the nature. We care our own family members, brothers and sisters, we should also care as important as our family members to our nature by growing more trees, not to cut away unnecessarily. We are here to remind our society that we should care our nature.

She also mentioned that our country has been increasing in plastic pollution, air pollution and water scarcity day by day we need to think our future. Days will be not far even our people will suffer due to water scarcity and unbearable air pollution. Further she said that “our forefathers have preserved and maintain our nature very loving and handed over to the young generation but has been have destroyed the nature by cutting down the trees and creating pollution on various ways without thinking about the next generation”.  The program concluded with a pledge that only the possible way to preserve our environment is plant more trees and create awareness.