1. “PLASTIC MARANAKKIDANGU” ( PLASTIC – THE DEATH TRAP )

2. Crusade to halt the invasion of plastics in villages surrounding Sevalaya

3. Initiating students to Design for Change Programme 1st week of September 2010

4. Teachers explain the concept of the programme, clarify the doubts of the students and show sample projects done by students in the earlier years.

5. Students come up with ideas 2nd week of September 2010

6. Students talk about the problems in their villages. Various ideas are written down and discussed. A common link is seen in the listed problems. Students decide to take up work on the common enemy –PLASTIC.

7. Assessing the situation 3rd week of September 2010

8. Student groups formed and they go to the different villages to get an idea of the ground situation.

9. Working out strategies and plans 3rd week of September 2010

10. Groups work out strategies to spread awareness about the evils of plastic. They meet village heads and get their cooperation.

11. They make arrangements with a person who is in the recycling business to collect the waste material once in 3 months. They go from door to door and talk with people. Pamphlets are distributed and CDs shown highlighting the evils of plastic.

12. Getting in to the field 4th week of September 2010

13. Students clear the existing garbage dumps and sort out non bio degradable items. They start collecting plastics and papers from houses and motivate villagers to avoid use of plastics as far as possible. They also tell villagers to compost the degradable waste.

14. The D Day 28th September 2010

15. Street plays , Rallies, Public announcements are made to reinforce the message and ensure that the villagers cooperation will continue in the days to come.

16. Students take the help of volunteers to completely clean out existing non degradable waste.

17. Mr.RameshRao from Chennai comes in to take away the sorted plastic waste.

18. The Change 28th September 2010 Evening

20. At the end of the day the 7 villages (Kasuva, Ramanathapuram, Puliyur, Pakkam, Melakkondaiyar, Sivanvoyal, KaliyanurKandigai) looked clean and neat. The entire appearance of the villages had changed.