As we all are aware, the lifestyle of today’s generation is leading towards a future where resources are going to be diminished and scarce. Hence, it becomes crucial to understand and respect the importance of available resources and use them judiciously. ETPA Foundation for social development which stands for Empowerment and Transformation through Progressive Action has once again continued the journey of raising awareness towards the importance of available resources through the concept of 4 R (Respect, Recycle, Reduce and Reuse) with the help of storytelling sessions and loud reading of Japanese Picture Books that are focussed around the famous Japanese character known as ‘Mottainai Dadima’. This project was started in 2016 but was later discontinued due to Pandemic. This initiative of ETPA Foundation also complements the objectives of Mission LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment), as launched by Govt of India. Right since its inception in 2016, I am fortunate to be part of ‘Mottainai Dadima’ Project, and have conducted multiple storytelling sessions on the concept of 4R with the young minds in various Government and Private schools. The Picture book of Mottainai Dadima is written by Ms. Mariko Shinjo, which has been translated into Hindi by Mr. Prem Prakash and is also being published in different Indian languages by National Book Trust (NBT). The word ‘Mottai’ stands for respecting and utilizing everything as it should be. It is suffixed with a word ‘nai’ which means No, therefore the word ‘Mottainai’ refers to ‘a sense of regret for any kind of wastage’.
Mottainai Dadima weaves a story around 4R’s namely Respect, Reuse, Recycle and Reduce towards the available resources.
Mottainai Grandma shares the message: “If we have a sharing mindset instead of only providing for ourselves, we can make a peaceful world and sustainable
environment as all lives are interconnected and each one is precious.”
A month back, Mr Sanjay K Panda, Director of ETPA Foundation called up stating joyfully that Mottainai Dadima Project is restarting and expressed his desire to conduct a training program on the skills of storytelling techniques and concept of 4 R for his Project team which may be further cascaded on ground to reach out to the children of different rural pockets. It was undoubtedly wonderful news and being a passionate storyteller and writer, I
happily took on the Project and conducted the Training for the young fellows on the basic concept of storytelling on 06th November 2023.
It was a great responsibility and a chance to brush up my writing skills, preparing the module paper on how to write a story and getting into the role myself. I had a wonderful team of audience listening with rapt attention noting down all important points. I thoroughly enjoyed imparting all my knowledge in compact form and to the best of my ability.
Seems so interesting, since I did teaching through theater with Pre primary children for many years.