Recently I've been working on a project at Badock's Wood in Southmead to engage primary school children with their local nature reserve.The project is funded by the Airbus Corporate Foundation as part of their India Biodiversity project. This is an amazing project which sends Airbus staff to a small community in India, rich in biodiversity, to provide the villagers with a sustainable fuel source and income.By building cattle sheds and biogas chambers the Airbus team create a system that converts cow dung into methane gas that is piped directly into the villagers homes and used for cooking.
For two weeks during each visit Airbus staff from around the world, build cow sheds, dig huge holes and create 3 biogas systems in extreme heat and primative conditions.This is absolutely life changing for the village community, no more 3-4 hours a day collecting wood, no more health damaging smoke filled homes and an income generated from fertlizer and milk sales.
Last week Emma Mayo from Airbus came along to Badock's Wood primary school with me to tell the year 6 class about her experiences in Southern India. Prior to her visit the pupils wrote letters and took photos of their school for Emma to take with her to show pupils in an Indian school. Emma brought lots of photos back to show the class, explaining the work she had been doing, how she had lived and the wildlife she had seen. She then presented a garland of coloured paper created by the children in India as a gift for their new English friends. Each Indian child had written their name and something about themselves on a piece of paper to create the garland.The pupils of Badock's Wood primary had lots of questions for Emma and were fascinated by the Indian way of life, particularly the fact that they had no Playstations or shoes and that the volunteers had to dig a hole for their toilet!
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