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State school receives UNESCO MGIEP award

By The Assam Tribune

GUWAHATI, Oct 5 - NPS International School was awarded by UNESCO MGIEP as a part of the International Youth Campaign on Kindness for the Sustainable Development Goals, a press release received here stated.

UNESCO awarded the students with equipments worth more than Rs 1 lakh for creating 360� media. The organisations which have collaboratively awarded NPS are UNESCO, Facebook�Oculus, Digital Promise and UN SDG Action Campaign.

NPS students made a 4-minute film using 360 degree equipments based on the award-winning project which was done by them in 2016 � �Save the Turtles of Assam�. NPS students have been closely working on the 17 SDGs since the last few years and this award from UNESCO is a plume in their beret.

For shooting the 360 degrees film, the team revisited the temples where they had done their project and highlighted the positive changes during the last 2 years due to their initiative. The members of the temple management committee congratulated the efforts of the NPS students for their thoughtfulness.

The documentary was screened at the UNESCO MGIEP office in New Delhi on October 2 and will also be screened at the United Nations General Assembly in New York this month in the presence of the UN Secretary General. The 360 degrees video was appreciated by all the dignitaries present at the UNESCO office on October 2.

The primary objective of this coveted award is to drive youth engagement and agency, improve youth understanding of global issues impacting communities around the world, to build young people�s technical production skills with news media, and spur public awareness and action. Apart from this, pre-production, production and post-production guidance was also provided to the students.

In 2016, 20 students of NPS had participated in the Design for Change �I Can� School Challenge 2016 contest and their project entitled �Saving Turtles in Assam� won huge accolades as their initiative featured in the list of top 100-most influential stories of change. The �Saving Turtles of Assam� project was selected out of 3,610 stories of change from 27 States of India. My World 360 Degrees Film Challenge Award was presented to 5 schools in India.

As a part of the initiative to Save Turtles in Assam temple ponds, a group of 20 students of the school had visited various temple ponds in and around Guwahati, including Jorpukhuri of Ugratara Temple, Kamakhya Temple, HaigribMadhab Temple at Hajo and many more. Their main objective of visiting the temples was to create awareness among the masses to save turtles living in various ponds in Assam.

Out of 328 species of turtles found in the world, 29 species have been recorded in India, out of which 20 are found in Assam. Unfortunately, almost 90% of the turtles in Assam are facing some kind of threat. Since the population of these turtles in the world is reducing drastically, it is these temple ponds across Assam which act as the last refuge for these gentle creatures.

During their visit to the temple ponds, the NPS students collected plastic packets, bottles, unhygienic material and other garbage etc. and dumped it in the nearby dustbins. Apart from cleaning the water bodies and putting wooden planks for the turtles to take rest, the students also placed dustbins around the ponds and distributed leaflets among the people to create awareness on preservation of turtles. They also put up banners around the ponds so that the masses could be made aware about this noble cause.

Besides being instrumental in maintaining environmental and ecological balance, these turtles also have a religious significance in the temples. The number of turtles during the last 2 years after the NPS initiative has increased manifold. The temple authorities have also appreciated the students for the same.

The founder chairman of the school lauded the efforts of the students and encouraged them to carry on with more such initiatives for the betterment of the society.

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