Friends of Vrindavan: Friends of Vrindavan has organized a three days basket making training programme from the used plastic carry bags to find livelihood for the poor women. Many baskets, bowls and other handwoven items were made from the plastic carry bags during these days. The purpose of this workshop is to train the widows, poor women to find livelihood from the plastic recycling. The products made of the reused plastic carry bags is being sold to sustain the Clean Vrindavan Programme. The project is supported by the Centre for Environment Education and the UNDP GEF Small Grants Programme.

Friends of Vrindavan is implementing a pilot project on waste management under the name of Vrindavan Kuda Prabandhan Pariyojna, in which two municipal sanitation wards are adopted. The streets and drains of these areas are cleaned twice a day and the segregated waste is being collected from the houses, temples, ashrams and the shops. Two vegetable markets are also been cleaned and the organic waste is being recycled into the organic manure. The non degradable waste having economic value is being sold to the scrapdealers. This project is unique in its type where the temples priests, the traders, the common people and the ragpickers are involved. The project is also linked with the bio medical waste collection and treatment of the district.

The project has been broadly supported by the UNDP GEF Small Grants Programme, Sir Ratan Tata Trust, The Yash Birla Group, Times Foundation and other prominent philanthropic agencies.

Jagannath Poddar Director Friends of Vrindavan Swami Vivekananda Marg, Mathura Road, Post - Vrindavan, Dist - Mathura (U. P.) www. friendsofvrindavan. com Phone: (0565) 2442771 Mobile: 09412279139

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