Seed

Conceived as the mouthpiece of India’s freedom movement, Mathrubhumi is one of the pioneer newspapers in Malayalam language spoken in the State of Kerala, India. The history of Mathrubhumi is synonymous with the history of the state's freedom movement. Ever since its inception, Mathrubhumi has played significant role in the social, cultural and economic development of Kerala.

Initiative

Environmental degradation is one of the major hurdles faced by the present generation. Natural resources have been passed on from generations and it is our duty to protect, preserve and transfer it to our future generations. Public awareness is a major tool in environmental protection and media has to play a major role in spreading awareness among the general public. Awareness of the fact that future of the world is highly dependent on its children, prompted Mathrubhumi to embark in this novel initiative called SEED (Student Empowerment for Environmental Development) to create awareness among the younger generation to preserve and protect our mother nature. SEED is perhaps the largest green initiative in India at the school level by any newspaper organization for protecting and preserving Mother Nature through school children.

Objective

To develop a richer, greener and cleaner globe for the future generation and to create awareness among the student community on environment protection and enable them to protect water, air and soil and to develop a new green culture by assembling upper primary schools, high schools and higher secondary schools in the state of Kerala. The target group of SEED comprises students in the age group of 10-17 years across 38 Education Districts spread in 14 Revenue Districts in the State of Kerala.

Why SEED?

•    The degenerating environment conditions like global warming, de-forestation, water and air pollution, accumulation of plastic waste etc., have long been a threat to the world. It has now become absolutely essential to protect and preserve our environment.
•    SEED aims to create awareness among the student community on environment protection and enable them to protect water, air and soil.
•    Build a richer, greener and cleaner globe for future generation.
•    To develop a new green culture in the State of Kerala by assembling school children.

The hurdles:

•    Reaching out to the schools

Reaching out to the vast student community was a big challenge. This was tackled by sourcing volunteers from with the organization to spread the message of SEED to the student community. Mathrubhumi employees or SPOCs (Single point of contact) of SEED from all the districts of Kerala volunteered for this novel venture and the schools were divided among these SPOCs.

•    Reaching out to the students in the schools

It was close to impossible for the SPOCs to visit each school periodically for evaluation of the activities and to provide feedback to the students. Hence, one teacher coordinator was selected in each school and all activities were done under the supervision of the SEED teacher co-ordinator.

The Journey

SEED was launched in the year 2009 and has completed three successful years. The Fourth Edition of SEED will be launched on 5th June, 2012 (World Environment Day). The first three years witnessed wide participation from the length and breadth of the State of Kerala. The evaluation period of SEED activities is one academic year i.e. from June to March. First year of SEED had 3,087 member schools, the 2nd year 5,378 schools and the third year 5443 schools.

How SEED functions?

1.    Each of the participating school has a SEED club with a teacher co-ordinator. SEED club members lead the activities under the supervision of the teacher co-ordinator. Training programmes were imparted to the teacher co-ordinators by the volunteer staff of Mathrubhumi group.
2.    Internally, Mathrubhumi has a four tier monitoring system viz., School level, Education district level, Revenue District level and State Level. At the school level, we have one Single Point of Contact (SPOC) for each of the 10 schools. The School SPOCs periodically visited participating schools and obtained their reports along with evidence. The School SPOCs report the progress to the Education District SPOCs, who in turn will report to the Revenue District SPOC.
3.    A comprehensive evaluation of activities was carried out across Kerala culminating with a five member expert jury visiting the short listed schools.
4.    Cash prizes amounting to a total of Rs.20 lakhs was given away as prizes to the winning schools.
5.    We have a battalion of employees, who are passionate about environment and conservation related subjects, who act as Trainers to the Teachers. We have 65 such Trainers from within the organization. The trainers include factory workers to Senior Managers.

SEED Awards

•    Vishishta Haritha Vidyalayam Award:
    The best performing school in the state will be awarded with ‘Vishishta Haritha Vidyalayam Award’ along with cash prize of Rs 1.00 lakh, trophy and certificate.

•    Shreshta Haritha Vidyalayam Award:
Out of the 14 revenue districts, one school from each district will be awarded the ‘Shreshta Haritha   Vidyalayam Award’, Trophy and certificate.

•    Haritha Vidyalayam Award
    Out of the 38 education districts, three schools in each educational district (total 114 schools) will be awarded cash prizes and awards. The first prize winners of each education district will be awarded the `Haritha Vidyalayam Award ‘, certificate and cash prize of Rs. 25,000/-   The second prize winner will get cash award of Rs 15,000/- trophy and certificate and the third prize winner will get cash prize of Rs 10,000/- trophy and certificate.
      Commendation certificates - Total 403 prizes

•    Special Jury Awards:
A special jury award is given as a token of appreciation to those schools which shows outstanding performance for each category at state level.

•    Best Teacher Coordinator & Gem of Seed:
    Seed Teacher co-ordinators showing exceptional performance will be awarded Best Teacher Co-ordinator Awards in each of the 38 education districts. Students showing amazing commitment towards environmental protection will be awarded Gems of SEED Award in each of the 38 education district.