The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Visakhapatnam News : Making the `Best out of waste'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 30, 2006

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam

Making the `Best out of waste'

Vidya K.S.

"Reduce, reuse and recycle" was the theme of Prakriti nature club's competition

CREATIVE MINDS: Children participating at the 'Best out of waste' competition organised at Naval Base in Visakhapatnam on Saturday. — Photo: K.S.Vidya

VISAKHAPATNAM : A wind chime made from floppies, a coconut shell candle-stand and a dollhouse made from an old sweet box . These were but some of the creations made by naval children at the `Best out of waste' competition organised by Prakriti nature club and the Naval Wives Welfare Association (NWWA) in Naval Base.

The children brought a variety of waste materials from home ranging from old coconut shells, shoe-boxes, waste card board, coloured chart paper, old newspapers, used bottles, rice bags and broken plates. Sprawled on jute mats the children got busy creating items from using paint, crayons, sequins and fevicol. Imaginations ran wild as the children created items such as a flower vase from a broken plastic bottle, pencil stands from used cans, a lantern from waste cloth and a Spanish hip from cardboard and old pen rifles.

"It is a one hour competition and the children are divided into three age groups, five to seven years, eight to 10 and 11 to 14 years," said Prakriti Group coordinator, Jyoti Dixit. "Each group will be awarded three prizes and one consolation prize," she added. The judges were Anuradha Iyer and Navneet Nissar, naval wives with a passion for art and craft and Shobha Deshpande, NWWA Group Coordinator for Community Development was the chief guest

"The main criteria while judging are concept, presentation and the final look of the product," said Ms. Anuradha Iyer. Some parents watched on encouraging the children while some stepped in to help the younger ones. "Individual effort and creativity are important," added Ms. Navneet Nissar.

To help children enjoy the competition, Prakriti members played music and distributed wafers among the children. Prakriti is involved in encouraging environmental awareness among children through competitions, interactive sessions and nature treks. When asked what the theme for the event was the children yelled in chorus, "Reduce, reuse and recycle!"

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