Greening the city Miyawaki style

Thuvakkam, an NGO aiming at aiding society, runs initiatives tackling issues of education, cleanliness, environmental rejuvenation, traffic safety, and women empowerment.

 Joseph Alex, who is working in a private company and is also part of Thuvakkam as a volunteer relationship officer, says “It is just 5 years since we started our NGO named ‘Thuvakkam’ (A Beginning) with only a handful of dedicated volunteers. Our motto is ‘Everyone is looking for change, but we decided to be the change you wish to see’.”

Thuvakkam has come up with urban forestation for people and the reason they feel for this cause is, “We are losing our green environment due to urbanisation. 

Picture taken after plantation Mutukadu

So we thought to increase the green belt with minimum space. This Miyawaki method will help us to achieve such a target. We are following steps to create an urban forest”, says, Joseph.”

Joseph adds, “Soil test will be done to check its health and based on the test report, we will enrich the soil by adding manure, organic matter and compostable wastes with the existing soil. After a few weeks of soil enrichment process, we will do the planting. By using this method we can increase the number of trees within a small area.”

And what are the social issues they covered? Karka Kasadara and sponsor for success - Educational initiatives, Modern Thondara - awareness program, Clean up after dark - wall painting (Thuvakkam have revamped nearly 50+ public places it includes an entire wall painting in Valluvar Kottam),  Mannin Maindhargal - orphanage visit.

Thuvakkam also empowers women by giving top priority to female kids’ education through their ‘Sponsor for success activity’. It also conducted many awareness programs related to women empowerment.

Future plans? “We are looking for supporters to do urban forest at 120 schools from Thiruvallur district.  Rainwater harvesting system and Miyawakki project are our future goals”, concludes Joseph.