Children love to learn especially when it involves, seeing, touching, smelling, and tasting those objects that they are learning. Herbal plants are the best medium by which this can be done.
I have been working and conducting workshops on medicinal plants in Pune city for the last few months. Out of all these work shops the most fruitful was with children. I say this because they just soak up information like sponge. They are very curious and question out many things that they hear. They ask such questions that would be difficult even for the most expert, in a topic to answer.
The uniqueness that gets children fascinated is when they are able to taste and smell those plants which they might be consuming unknowingly e.g. Japanese mint, which is used in their favorite mouth freshener chewing gums, and then they ask “ho” so this is the plant that they use for chewing gums. There are many such examples of plants that can be pointed out. I remember how I learned about the tomato plant looked like, when I had grown them on my terrace garden and mistakenly uprooted the plant, thinking that it was a weed. when I saw the tomato plant growing in a farm near Pune city that is when I understood that the plant that I had uprooted was a tomato plant. It is very important for children to know where there food comes from and which source. The suckal social foundation has been sponsoring for these work shops, which has brought a vast difference in schools.
The Medicinal Plants Conservation Centre- Rural Communes (MPCC-RC) has been working for the past one and a half years in promoting Home Herbal Gardens in Pune city. As per the above project, we have supplied potted and unpotted medicinal plants to various households, schools and different Institutions in and around Pune city. Training programs have been conducted where people are taught how to prepare simple home remedies.
to get more information log on to http://www.rcmpcc.org/ or call: 24270216, 24269418.
Philip Mathew
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