SOCIAL INTIATIVES
In line with the school's vision and mission, Ram Ratna International School focusses on shaping our students into socially responsible citizens of the future with deep rooted Indian values. We work on several social initiatives that sensitize our children and motivate them to act for the welfare of the society in general and the needs of the underprivileged sections in particular. The activities range from a wide range of initiatives from conservation to shramdaan and from crowdfunding to education. Scroll to discover more on our social intiatives.
SEED BANK
We have a great responsibility to conserve mother nature and our seed bank initiative takes it a step further to involve children in preserving seeds to be used for the plantation of forests.
Our seed bank initiative kickstarted in September 2019 where our students passionately collected over 21 different types of seeds to be used for plantations.
All collected seeds were dried and preserved in bottles to be planted during the upcoming monsoon season by creating seed balls.
RAIN WATER HARVESTING
The RRIS rainwater harvesting project involved conserving almost 2 million litres of water every year flowing off the 13000 sqft area of the school terrace building. This project involved plumbing work to be realigned and facilitating the stormwater drainage from the terrace into the rainwater harvesting feeder pit.
This 4 sqft wide pit was dug by the students and a plastic drum with holes was placed in it to facilitate the seepage of drain water into the ground, thereby impacting the groundwater level in the region.
DENSE FOREST
The RRIS dense forest project was initiated using the revolutionary Japanese plantation technique of Akira Miyawaki. This technique involves the plantation of fast-growing plants in close vicinity of each other so that as they grow they compete with each other for their share of sunlight causing the plants to grow tall and being close to each other forming a dense forest.
The dense forest involved planting 1200 trees spread over a 2000 sqft area in the school campus by 900 volunteers involving students, parents, teachers, and staff of RRIS and 50 other institutions.
ZERO WASTE
The zero-waste initiative of RRIS is the result of a collective effort of students to dump the organic waste collected in their homes in the compost bins installed in the school premises.
All organic waste generated at home like vegetable and fruit peels, flowers and food was dumped into the special containers to minimize dumping in the traditional dustbin and instead, generating natural compost from the processing bin over a period of 1 month.
ORGANIC COMPOST
The zero-waste initiative feeds into the organic compost initiative of RRIS. Organic compost is managed in two special bins where the organic waste is decomposed for a period of over a month to 45 days after which the organic compost is extracted.
This organic compost is used for the gardening activities in the school complex and also available for parents and others to purchase. The proceeds from the sale of organic compost is further used for the various philanthropic and social initiatives of the school.
ECO-BRICKS
Plastic pollution has been the most rampant pollution menace of our times. RRIS is a no-plastic zone school. Taking this a step further the eco brick concept is being followed by all students of the school to collect dry plastic waste of packaged food wrappers stored in pet bottles for recycling the plastic in a viable form of recycled eco-bricks plastic products.
The eco-bricks project is a simple and highly viable initiative to control the menace of plastic pollution that otherwise would mix with other waste and end up in the dumping yards waiting for several hundred years to decompose completely.
COINS FOR A CAUSE
Coins for a cause is a multi-dimensional initiative of RRIS students. The initiative involves engaging students in a wide range of activities involving creativity, numbers, economics at the heart of it is inculcating the values of serving, philanthropy and social responsibility.
Every year the students start with moulding their own mud pots for collecting coins throughout the year. Small change and even pocket money saved by students adds up to their savings as they enthusiastically collect the money in their saving boxes.
At the end of the year, the earthen pots are broken and individual collections of students counted and the overall calculated corpus pooled together.
Based on the students’ decision this collection of funds is utilized for a philanthropic and social cause.
SUPPORTING PARA ATHELTES
The first edition of Coins for a Cause initiative pooled by the students had collections of Rs 77,175. An open discussion of students, teachers and the principal led to the unanimous decision of supporting 3 para-athletes who needed special wheelchairs for their sporting activities to participate in the International Paralympics competition.
The total cost of Rs 96,794 for the specialized wheelchairs was supported by funds from Coins for a Cause with an additional Rs 19,619 supported by the School management committee.
HAND PUMP FOR JAMJHADPADA
Jamjhadpada is a small village about a couple of kilometres in the vicinity of the school campus. Inhabited by the native Warli tribe, the village has had problems with potable drinking water. Villagers had been fetching the water from an old well about a mile away from the village. In addition to the distance, the quality of water was a concern too.
The second edition of Coins for a Cause raised collections of Rs 1,37,000. The objective of the collections was unanimously planned for installation of a hand pump for the 200 odd residents of Jamjhadpada village.
On the auspicious occasion of Mahashivratri a handpump was installed and inaugurated with great fervour in the presence of village community, students, parents and teachers.
KNOWLEDGE ON WHEELS
The Knowledge on Wheels project is a unique project taking knowledge of books to the most remote areas for benefitting the underprivileged sections of the society in need of access to books and education.
A squad of students mentored by a teacher travels down to the village of Jamjhadpada every Wednesday with books, learning kits and spend quality time with little kids conducting learning sessions on reading, speaking, math and other play and learning activities to engage them.
As a result, there has been a commendable impact on the learning and development of the children of Jamjhadpada. The students of RRIS are excited about pursuing the Knowledge on Wheels project.
KHUSHI BAZAAR
Khushi bazaar is a celebration of happiness organized by the students of RRIS to host a special exhibition for the residents of Jamjhadpada in the school campus. The students collect a wide range of useful items of day to day use they would like to donate for Khushi Bazaar and set up stalls for the villagers to come and pick the goods of their choice they need for themselves.
This shopping like experience gives a unique perspective to a philanthropic activity with a sense of dignity for the beneficiaries by allowing them to choose as they would in a supermarket.
KHUSHI UTSAV
Along with Khushi Bazaar, Khushi Utsav is a special celebration organized on the occasion of Republic Day every year by RRIS students. The event involves students express their joy of sharing the happiness by organizing special food stalls and fun games for the residents of Jamjhadpada making a memorable experience of fun and frolic for young, children and adults alike.
The event also has a free health check-up camp for the villagers of Jamjhadpada to ascertain their health needs and help them with medication and treatment in case they need it.
The joy of sharing is integral to the values of RRIS and the students are encouraged to ideate, plan and organize events that bring out the joy of sharing with the underprivileged, vulnerable sections of society.
As a part of these programs, the students undertake distribution drives for food, clothes, books and much more.
SHRAMDAAN
The concept of crowdsourcing labour for the public service can make a great impact. At RRIS students are encouraged to contribute efforts to various social projects under the Shramdaan initiative.
RRIS students have actively been engaged in Shramdaan projects cleaning the school premises and also a cleaning drive on Gorai beach.
In addition to cleaning, our students have also engaged in creative Shramdaan by painting the walls along the road sidewalk near the Maxus mall area.