2 students win UNESCO’s national-level competition H2Ooooh for spreading awareness about water conservation

School Web Desk

New Delhi, October 21

Two students — Abhiram Shine Nair (Class III) and Nythika Sajith (Class VI) — of Amrita Vidyalayam, Thalassery have been adjudged the winners of UNESCO's H2Ooooh!, a national-level creative competition aimed at making schoolchildren of India ‘waterwise’.

The project encourages youngsters (6 to 14 years old) to make creative contributions to spread awareness about  and find solutions for, water scarcity, sustainable use, water conservation, safeguarding water resources, and other water issues.  

A drawing by Abhiram Shine Nair and a story by Nythika Sajith made them the winners of the competition phase and competition-cum-training phase of H2Ooooh!, respectively. Their contributions will be used to create animation videos focusing on water protection and its sustainable use in India. 

During the second phase, in which Amrita Vidyalayam’s Abhiram Shine Nair emerged a winner, a competition was initiated in the schools to pick top ideas and drawing/cartoon submissions. Out of the 2000 students who participated in the qualifier round, a total of 93 students, including eight children with disabilities, were selected to undergo special training by Toonz Media. 

Amrita Vidyalayam’s Nythika Sajith was one among the participants of the one-week training by Toonz Media that introduced the students to the basics of cartoon animation including script writing, character sketching and storyboarding. Nythika’s story is selected to create animation videos focusing on water protection and its sustainable use in India. 

Commenting about the achievements of the students, Samaradhyamrita Chaitanya Principal Amrita Vidyalayam Thalassery said, “Our children were very happy about the whole idea of W2Ooooh! It has helped them learn about the importance of water, which has enormous value for households, food, culture, health, education, economics and the integrity of our natural environment. Our hearty congratulations to the winning students. Their national-level achievements were possible because of the dedicated efforts, constant support and encouragement of our teachers and staff of the school.”

More than 17,000 students from 43 schools across India have taken part  in the latest edition of H2Ooooh! As part of the first phase, many animation videos, both in English and Hindi, highlighting different water issues, were screened at schools for students of Class I to VIII.

The videos were developed by UNESCO — Venice. UNESCO also distributed educational materials, and conducted discussions and quizzes based on them to help students develop a deeper understanding of issues.