September 30 2020 Eco Friendly Tribute to Mahatma Gandhi

We decided to pay tribute to Gandhi on his 151th birth anniversary in an eco-friendly way: Rashida Adil.

Iconic glasses of Mahatma Gandhi made with recycled paper; matchsticks and cardboards used to create his famous charkha (spinning wheel) and paper plates to depict three monkeys portraying the Indian freedom fighter's philosophy of staying away from evil.

It was creativity with a dash of eco-friendliness as over 4,000 students of Sharjah Indian School, Juwaiza paid tribute with their artworks to India's 'Father Of The Nation' on his 151th birth anniversary on Friday.

These students (all boys) belonged to Grade 1-9 of the school and were guided by art and craft teacher Rashida Adil. Rashida, who is holding all her classes remotely, said: "We decided to pay tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his 151th birth anniversary in an eco-friendly way as that's what the leader always propagated. So, I started this project with 750 students from Grade 8 and 9 where I taught them to sketch and paint on old newspapers. I first made the sketch myself and sent samples to my students. During our weekly Zoom classes, the kids made it under my supervision virtually. I also sent them videos on how to make it and the students showed their creativity by using paints, sketch pens etc to sketch and paint the picture of Mahatma Gandhi on old newspapers."

Rashida said she had planned to dedicate a wall in her school to Mahatma Gandhi by putting up paintings and art creations made by students using eco-friendly materials, but due to Covid-19 pandemic, the school has advised students to opt for distance learning.

She later decided to engage the younger classes and sent out a plan to teachers of Grade 1-7 to start different craft projects based on Gandhi and his teachings.

"I was thrilled to see that all my school staff also got involved with the project. The younger students were inspired not only to create eco-friendly things based on the Gandhi theme, but some of them even dressed up as the Indian freedom fighter and sported their creative work," Rashida pointed out.

She added: "Some Grade 1 students learnt to make glasses of Gandhi with recycled paper and a few even decked themselves up as him while donning those specs. Grade 2 and Grade 4 students made Gandhi's famous charkha using recycled paper, cardboards and matchsticks; Grade 3 used coloured recycled paper plates and made three monkeys representing Gandhi's philosophy of 'see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil', while Grade 4 students made a tricoloured flower pot using recycled paper and bottle caps; and Grade 6 and 7 pupils made silhouette paintings of Bapu."

As a personal homage, Rashida herself created an artwork, showing Gandhi on his charkha, using around 1,000 recycled buttons. She framed this and gifted it to the Indian Association of Sharjah.