Grassroots Comics helping to relate with Local Environment

Climate change has emerged as a critical issue and it’s now impossible to neglect and ignore the aspects of environment and environmental education. It is high time now that environmental education takes a new shape and transcends beyond the four walls of classrooms to the community members.

World Comics India, using the Grassroots Comics methodology has trained the employees of more than ten of HCL Foundation’s partner organizations. During these training sessions, employees did not only identify issues but also learnt how to turn them into comics through story writing and drawing.

Using the Grassroots Comics methodology, World Comics India has made environmental education accessible to all in a fun and engaging way.

In light of a paucity of public debate and discourse on environment and environmental education, the comics workshops created a conducive atmosphere where people could learn about the environment by connecting it with their real-life experiences.

Environmental news and events of some far-off land do not affect people as much as events around them do and hence connecting the environment with real-life experiences becomes of utmost necessity.

The participants covered a huge number of environmental issues and events and the comic stories ranged from the 2013 Uttrakhand floods, endangered species like vultures to the usage of pine trees, making compost from kitchen waste, etc.

The comics anthology consisting of comic stories made by community members based on their experiences is all set to be published and will soon be available to readers. In the next phase of this initiative, World Comics India will document local stories from the southern states of India.