The father figure and spiritual soul of the Greens – Asoka Harischandra speaks to the children

Trust them to come through is all we can say. The children’s societies that we established were so enthusiastically supported by the kids and their parents that we ourselves were taken aback. We gave them nothing but direction and triggered them to action and wow! did they deliver. The kids self-mobilized in those areas where the GMSL was working to establish and/or improve green cover and that included canopy roads, aforrestation, flower and herbal gardens. What was very heartening to see was that they dove in on their own, creating little cultural skits while they went about the serious task of helping their communities to improve the quality of their environment. Of course their parents were also equally involved and they hovered around the kids, gently watching over them.

For us, it was proven yet again that the

Kids planting the trees that will create a new canopy road

whole-of-community approach that has most shaking in fear is actually the most beneficial and most sustainable way of doing something. You see, instead of harping on piecemeal rights such as women’s rights, children’s rights, youth rights and human rights which essentially fracture communities and cause internal conflict, we were only interested in one thing – community rights and for those, the entire community stood together in a cohesive whole, stronger for the fact and enjoying the one real right that is useful to them in building their resilience. COLIBRI is about community not individuality. We are simply reminding communities of the power of togetherness and my my, are they reaping the rewards of that sort of thinking. We are smiling.