Lockdown: “Tear Of The Earth” Celebrates Earth Day Over Video Call, Online Contest
As rightly said by Wendell Berry, “The earth is what we all have in common,” this is what everyone must keep in mind. We have to decide now, or there will be no chance to regret it later. As said, humans have this common asset, we have to decide on whether it has to be treasured or not? Every year we celebrate ‘Earth Day’ with a new theme, new pledge, and new activities but the question, are we actually celebrating it just like other festivals which come annually or there is a will or urge in our heart and mind to bring a good positive change for mother Earth. Many organizations and environmentalists are striving day and night to work in sustainable development and to repair the damage we have caused to nature. One such organization is ‘Tears of the Earth’ aka TOE.
The organization consists of a group of young enthusiastic much aware environmental health concerned people who actually think about bringing the change they want to see on the planet Earth. They organize several types of campaigning, sessions, education fair, nukkad nataks, clean-up drive, and much more. All they do is gather people irrespective of the age factor and work together for this Nobel cause.
On this 50th Earth Day, the TOE team comes up together, maintaining the social distancing and using the power of the digital world to celebrate the earth day and thanking Earth being the common and most important factor for the existence of every living being.
What is Earth Day?
Earth Day is celebrated annually, around the world on April 22 to demonstrate and ask for support for environmental protection. It was first celebrated in the year 1970, and now it includes events coordinated globally by 193 countries via Earth Day Network medium.
How TOE celebrated this 50th Earth Day?
Even amid Pandemic COVID-19 lockdown, the enthusiasm of the volunteers of TOE teams didn’t slow down. They decided to participate in the event by following all the laws and guidelines given by the Government of India (GOI). They came out with a creative idea of celebrating this earth day, but via digital means, that is, to celebrate within the four walls of their home, doing different activities and pledge to save our planet.
They organized an online campaign and called people to connect by taking participation in different activities, and people actually did participate. People of all generations, gender came out as volunteers without any greed of getting a reward or thinking it as a publicity stunt; they just participated. Might be we can say; when there is a will, there is always a way.
The team organized various activities like digital pledge taking with hashtag #IloveMyEarth, best out of waste material by believing that nothing is truly a wastage, music, and art for mother earth, poster making, Facebook and Instagram live session and all-time favorite plantation drive.
The notable side of all these activities was that the celebration didn’t hamper any of the current lockdown rules or social distancing norms. See, this simple is to follow the lockdown rules. TOE team amazingly celebrate the day, and they all did plantation in their houses as well. So all in three words, we can sum up the Celebration by Movie Manjhi dialogue “Shandar, Zabardast, Zindabad!”
Might be the strength is not that much, but the great saying by Margaret Mead that “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” So the choice is ours now that whether we want to be a part of a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens who care for planet earth or the other one we all know.