Versova Beach Clean up – Report on the Community Work
For more than two years , Afroz Shah has been leading volunteers in manually picking up rubbish from Versova Beach and teaching sustainable waste practices to villagers and people living in slums along the coastline and the creeks leading into it.
Every weekend , Afroz Shah inspires volunteers to join him – from slum – dwellers to Bollywood stars , from corporates to citizen groups , from school children to politicians. They have been turning up at Versova for their ‘date with the ocean’. And we B.E.d students , would be teachers are one of them. Every Saturday we go for the beach clean up at Versova , as our part of community work , scheduled as per our college’s curriculum. As Afroz sir also uses Whatsapp groups as a coordination tool with various core groups associated with the clean ups ; this is through which our respected professor sends us the community work registration link , where we fill our personal details and select the timing for our clean up batch.
Following are the details of how our beach clean up was conducted successfully at Versova :
Every Saturday our group sincerely indulged in the beach cleaning task. At times after the clean up we had a small half an hour session for every new group joins the clean up , where they shared their experiences and thoughts. We were also educated on what is the purpose and how can we prevent this on-going disaster , to save marine lives as well as to make our land clean. Each single day we witnessed how the kind founder , Afroz Shah has not forgotten his intend , he was there each single day with us cleaning the Beach. Like the most humble person he interacted with us and is always seen taciturnly picking up the wastes without a wrinkle.
After we are done with the clean up, his team provides us snacks and at times refreshment ; water to wash our hands and a bucket to throw our used gloves is arrayed for our use.
Beach clean up drives proved to be an effective way to clear waste from natural habitats. Moreover , the visual as well as physical impact on me of seeing others cleaning up a particular place littered with waste had a domino effect and compelled me to reflect on my actions and be a better living being , who with her actions sees to it that no harm is done to the nature.
I’m filled with gratitude and pride to the Afroz Shah Foundation for this great initiative and our institution to make it an integral particular of their duty to shape us as not only teachers but a better human.
