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Therefore, I am sharing my experience with you all as it might be helpful for some of English speaking people. Here it is....Thank you for reading!!! 

It was Sunday, 18^th of April 2021. Early that morning our second son, Nipuna, came to see us, and announced that he was feeling feverish! I was alarmed, as it was the weekend that the New Delhi government announced the second lock-down due to Covid. Then again, I thought, well, it can’t be Covid; Nipuna does not go out much- I’m the one who usually goes out and brings home the groceries. Anyway, I advised him to take paracetamol and to try to sleep again. In accordance with the advice we had received from the authorities, we decided to act as though he definitely had Covid. We gave him paracetamol for the fever, many liquids, such as ginger/lemon tea and warm water, and healthy food. Getting a PCR virus test was very challenging as the prebooking system was always full. Somehow, we managed to all get our PCR tests done on the 5^th day, the 23^rd of April. Results: Nipuna was positive for Covid, the rest of us were negative. But my throat felt slightly sore, and I knew that I was going to come down with Covid as well. So, I too, followed the same instructions given by the World Health Organization and the doctors. This was the time that Delhi had the highest number of Covid positive cases (around 28,000 per day, with a death rate of about 400 per day). We knew that even though we needed to go to hospital, getting in to one would be a huge challenge. Hence, we decided to look after ourselves somehow. One helpful factor was that we had had our first jab three weeks before. So, we were feeling positive, and kept following all the instructions faithfully. After 5 days from my first symptom, Thushara became feverish. The next day Henry, our Indian helper, had a fever, too. Then I knew I should get myself ready to run the house, even though I still had a fever, as there was no-one else to cook and feed the family. At least by then Nipuna was clearly recovering, and even able to attend online classes at school.

How I managed three active Covid patients (Thushara, Henry and myself) seems unbelievable when I think about it now. I would get up in the morning, wash myself, and get ready with new cloths. I would cook some rice and Dhal curry for breakfast and lunch. Other than this, we had bread, eggs and fruit at home. So, I fed them whatever they wanted to eat. I started two separate charts for Thushara and Henry, measuring their temperature and oxygen level every four hours using the pulse oximeter. Whenever they had high fever, I did this more frequently.  We were told that if the oxygen level went down to 93% we should contact a doctor. Luckily, their concentrations both stayed above 96%.

While managing patients at home, we did the following:

1       We asked Henry to leave his quarters upstairs, and come and stay in our front room, so that he was not alone, and we could monitor him closely.

2        I stopped browsing social media, and put the phone into silent mode. Even before we got Covid, we were getting so much negative news about deaths, no hospital beds, corpses lining the roads without enough wood to cremate them, etc. I wanted to avoid getting scared or frustrated from watching or hearing this type of news. I asked the others to do the same. I only spoke with my parents and eldest son (who is in university) to show them that we were all doing great, even while having Covid. It was only a half-truth, but I never wanted to scare my parents or son who are so far away from us. 

3       When I worked in the kitchen, I felt extremely tired, but took a lot of rest in between, and did breathing exercises. These were very difficult, as I felt a slight pain in the lung area when taking a deep breath. Also, I had severe coughing. But I kept on doing breathing exercises and meditations, which helped me to stay calm and breathe comfortably.

4       I had no smell or taste- but I had to cook and eat. I kept on tasting and inhaling many fragrances, even though I could not feel them. That way, I thought, I should keep reminding my brain about these fragrances.

5        I drank loads of herbal drinks and warm water, and ate lots of fruit in between main meals. I also took vitamin supplements.

6       Once only, I got a panic attack when I started thinking about what would happen if one of us had to seek a hospital, or need oxygen. I started sweating, with palpitations and blackout. Somehow, I managed to realize that I was panicking unnecessarily and should not continue thinking like that. I opened the door and went into my small front garden and started breathing deeply, and thinking about all the good work I had done so far: planting trees, rescuing animals, growing organic vegetables, sharing with neighbors, teaching kids about Nature, looking after stray cats and dogs, feeding birds, etc. Whatever came into my mind, I started giving the loving kindness and blessing to them. This is Metta Meditation in Buddhism. It was very useful for helping me to calm myself down, and in this way I managed the panic attack.

7       We watched movies- with positive messages only- on Netflix, and watched musical shows. We rarely have time to watch movies in our normal life, but we thoroughly enjoyed them during those days.

8        I mainly passed my day with doing breathing exercises (Pranayama Yoga), meditation, watching Nature, watering my plants, talking to plants (I was already doing Horticulture therapy before Covid) and the stray cat who visits my garden, listening to songs and watching movies, and looking after others.

9        There were very few friends we answered the phone to, or read text messages from. A few friends who had Covid before us were very helpful, sharing advice and keeping our morale up (None of them had three patients at home, so they understood my crisis.)

10   Somehow, I was out of fever on day 5, and the other two, soon after that. I monitored them very closely until both were out of the risk period (during which pneumonia was a possibility).

11   We all spent 17 days inside from the last date of infection, which was the recommended quarantine period for us in Delhi. Then we slowly started our normal routines. Now when we look back, it was like a bad dream, and we’ve almost forgotten how we felt during that period. But what I have to say is that we never got scared about the situation, but we were very conscious and alert. At the same time, we never cursed or hated the virus, as we knew it was another living being, and we were fully aware that there was no medicine. We always stayed positive and lived consciously in that moment. We did not worry about what would happen tomorrow, or next week, or how bad it could be (except for the moment I thought about the situation in such a way as to bring on the panic attack).

The main lesson we learnt during the Covid-19 infection is: using our mind effectively is the main factor in helping us to face life positively and stay healthy!

If someone wants to read the Sinhala language article here is the link 

https://sinhala.newswire.lk/2021/05/23/%e0%b6%9a%e0%b7%9c%e0%b7%80%e0%b7%92%e0%b6%a9%e0%b7%8a-%e0%b6%af%e0%b7%94%e0%b6%a7%e0%b7%94%e0%b7%80%e0%b7%99%e0%b6%b8%e0%b7%92-%e0%b7%80%e0%b7%90%e0%b6%bd%e0%b6%af-%e0%b6%9c%e0%b6%ad%e0%b7%8a/ 

 

 

ECO-V is 20 years!! Can you all believe it? We started ECO-V on the 7th of February 2001. It was a very small meeting with my university friends; Sujani, Lal, Harsha and some of Thushara’s friends and my family members. We launched it officially as a new organization and then started working as a team. The first office was at the living room of our one-bedroom apartment in Moratuwa. I was 1 month pregnant with our first son Buhusuru, so ECO-V was our first child officially. We started working after winning the Rufford small grant from Whitley Fund for Nature (https://whitleyaward.org/). All happened just because I met Edward Whitley from WFN at the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Conservation leadership programme (https://www.conservationleadershipprogramme.org/) held at Natural History Museum in London in April 2000! It was like yesterday when Edward came to our table and had a chat with me during a small break while compering at the award ceremony.

At the award ceremony of WFN

Our first working team, Harsha,Sujani,Sudharshi,Samanmalee and Lal

Being thankful!...

I should be very thankful to Catherine Gotto the Manager of CLP at that time for inviting me as the Mistress of Ceremonies to the event. If not, how could I meet Edward who suggested I should start an organisation while having a meeting at his home the next day? Also, I should be thankful to Cambridge 97 project team members - my dear friends Jules, Claire, Cathy and Chris who came to Sri Lanka after winning a grant from CLP in 1997. They were my mentors during the 3 months project around Sinharaja rain forest and later they supported me to attend Durrell Conservation academy in 1999 (https://training.durrell.org/). 

Meeting Claire and Jules in the UK, after 15 years of Sinharaja 97'

Meeting Cathy in London during the visit in 2012

Me at Durrell in 2012 during a revisit.

Going further back I should be in debt to my dear teacher/mentor Prof. Sarath Kotagama for selecting me to Sinharaja 97’ project as one of the Sri Lankan counterparts. All these people behind me were always remembered along with the ECO-V life story. Adding more to the story I should be remembering my dear father, Punchi Banda Weerakoon, my uncle Dr. A.T Ariyaratne and late Mr. K.D.R.N Wijesinghe the director of National Zoological garden who gave me advice, guidance and helped to select the honest and clear path in establishing the organization legally. How should I not be thankful to my loving husband Thushara for encouraging me to start the organization after Edward suggested but me having doubts about my capacity?

 

Positive impact….

When I travelled through the memories while clicking on photographs in hundreds of folders in my external drive, I really can’t believe how much work we had done.  So many projects, so many activities took place within these 20 years. Numbers are not important to us but all stories we hear from people who have been following us, how they have made positive behavioral changes within themselves, individually and at family level, at working places and in the communities are the most important to us. We never had a permanent donor; we were depending on small grants, or some organizations who supported us short term. We never had a proper office like other organizations, it was only a dedicated area on a floor at our home (only twice we went out for a year but it was not the best environment for us). The team members were a family to us. My two kids grew up while watching our work. How we made plans for sustainable events attending to all minor details about minimizing our carbon footprint during such events, focusing on zero waste events or projects focusing its sustainability and long-term positive impacts, where our waste would end up and quality of work rather than numbers of attendees. In the early days Harsha and Lal helped me to carry my kids when we travelled to the field to do our work even during civil conflict in Sri Lanka. Kids were always around me when we had monthly “Thiresi” meetings for members. 

Kids enjoying water during our Leaf Monkey project

Lal carrying Nipuna during Pelican conservation work while Bandara helping Buhusuru

Today, I see the results of bringing up two boys in a very eco-friendly manner, when I see their leadership qualities in school or university clubs, their thinking on current issues, and their essays they write for university entrance applications or even for TED talks. One common comment I get from both of them is “Mother, thank you for making us feel guilty about what we want to do for fun!!!” Yes...it is very sarcastic comment but, I know that means they are thinking not only twice about their acts but many times before they want to get involved. Which is for me simply “conscious consumerism or eco-friendly thinking” what we have been preaching over 20 years. It is the behavioural change that we wanted to bring among individuals. Many past and current members of ECO-V must have got that thinking but for sure I know at least I have mentored two children where I see positive impact on Mother Nature! Of course, I can add my husband and myself into that list of people who changed positively via ECO-V activities. Whoever comes forward and says “I changed my one little behavior following ECO-V’s work will be an added bonus to our list of success stories!! This may sound like bragging about ECO-V, but to be honest, I know there are many like that as I have heard that comment so many times within these 20 years. We had beautiful time together learning and experiencing Nature during "Thiresi Charika" and monthly "Thiresi Meetings". 

 

Volunteers and my two boys experiencing a "Environmental Meditation" session during a "Thiresi Charika"

During a monthly members meeting at our home - "Thiresi" meeting

Bu and Nipu with me listening to our discussions of Nature during monthly "Thiresi" meetings

Failures and challenges...

During these past 20 years, only one project ended up without a sustainability that was the Bellanwila-Attidiya sanctuary conservation work. It was due to government laws related to conservation status and then another project on Otters had to stop soon after we implemented as we could not secure funding. We regretted those two but all other projects ended up with very positive outcomes. Keeping and maintaining staff was always a challenge as we could not secure their jobs beyond the project period since we did not have permanent funding sources. So, nobody stayed with us beyond 3-4 years. We take it positively as we were able to train youngsters to do work faithfully and productively and also bring the behavioral change to themselves within the short period of work with us. Even today all my past staff members communicate, admire our days together and tell us how much change brought into their lives and many are still volunteering to us. Some have started their own organizations or movements. Isn't it great?? 

At our home based office, even team has to play with cats!

Team meeting at home based office for Leaf monkey project team

Planning team of Paapedi 2013 at our home based office

Not a professional office but of course a skillful team - Team Paapedi 2013

I live outside of Sri Lanka now with my family but still ECO-V activities are taking place. Office is based at our home in Sri Lanka on an entire dedicated floor for office. There are no big projects currently but with activities with high positive impacts with services. Those services are not only for humans but also for other living beings! We don’t have huge grants but we have well-wishes who are supporting us in small ways (personally or as organizations) but just enough for us to bring the positive change. We still function as a voluntary organization, just like when we started and we will be, as our aim is to let people understand money is not everything. Just like Mother Earth giving her services to her children, we too try to give our services back to her and her children! 

Lessons learnt…

I am 20 years older than when I started ECO-V. When I look back, I have no regrets, but a huge satisfaction for being able to do so much voluntary work (Thanks to my husband, I never had a need to earn to feed my children). I might have done a little bit well in the finances side and found a big donor for ECO-V to do more work but….that was my capacity and may be this is what I was destined to do. Therefore, I take it as a positive karma!

Global impact…

With the experience gained through building up ECO-V, I managed to co-found Journeys for Climate Justice in Australia (https://www.journeysforclimatejustice.org.au/), and Edible Routes Foundation in India (https://www.facebook.com/edibleroutesfoundation/). I enjoy work at International level through these organisations and many networks that we work together to bring up positive change to the world of conservation.

  

My interpretation….

Well for me, I was born to this world to do this service mostly as a volunteer. May be making money is not my destiny during this birth but the service to all living beings is what I have to do which I am happy about. As a founder of an organization this may be a failure. But I am not regretting as I have understood myself and anyway we have done our best to protect Mother Nature and will be doing it with money or without money. We used to make cloth tote bags and eco friendly greeting cards and sell them to raise funds and we still do such activities as raising funds vis such activities are very helpful for us to get developed our skills. 

Me painting the cloth tote bags to sell and raise funds.

ECO-V is like a beautiful river still flowing 20 years! Sometimes splashing water, sometimes meandering, facing boulders steadily,   slowing down around deep puddles, running when needed flow silently along the valleys. Creating beautiful water falls down the hills and carrying and planting the seeds along its banks. Small streams keep giving water on the way so it will not get dried. That's just enough to see ECO-V as a river. It is there to drink water, take a bath, use for growing plants or just listen to the sound and enjoy but never stoppable by a dam because we will flow over the dam nourishing more lands helping more beings until it meets the great ocean.  Don’t know when. Until then May you all see it as a beautiful river and enjoy it!!

 

Waste is one of the main topics in the world! As an organization campaigning for sustainable Resource management and zero waste lifestyle for last 20 years, I wrote this article few years ago and modified again very recently with more details. 

Hope one can learn something out of this. I heard about 10R in waste Management when I was in Melbourne in 2010 and since then we at ECO-V adopted the method by modifying it in our own way. We always talk about "conscious consumerism and waste" together as waste is not a waste but it is a resource. 

Everybody knows about the 3R’s in Waste Management. I believe that simply following the guidelines of the 3R’s is not sufficient action to manage our global waste sustainably. I offer here a different perspective on waste management. We must stop generating further waste in order to get the issue down to a manageable scale. Human beings are the only living animal on this plant who generates waste. This is a self-created problem. Therefore, the solution must also be created by humans. I believe the only viable solution is a “zero waste” lifestyle (or to at least achieve 99% waste free). To enable us to lead a zero-waste lifestyle, we must follow the 10-R method. In other words, “consuming consciously or Conscious Consumerism”.  There is no such thing as “waste” unless we humans generate or create wasteful products. Therefore, what we are managing is “Resources”; once you manage resources wisely then there will be no waste products left. Let us see how we can manage resources sustainably.

 

Follow the 10R method to become a conscious consumer and zero waste generator!! It’s very simple, once you get the hang of it!

1.      Reject – Always buy only what you NEED. Reject unhealthy, unsuitable, unethical goods. Don’t buy more than what you need even if it’s cheap or on sale. This way you are saving resources for others who need to buy and also bringing less waste into your home. Moreover, it saves you money. Soon you will have created a list of permanently rejected items from your life. Some of such items that I have rejected in my life are: any kind of carbonated and sugary beverages, single use plastic or polyethene, artificially made or processed food like instant noodles and soup cubes, snacks, many varieties of biscuits, plastic straws, and tobacco. Rejecting these sorts of items has also helped our family to maintain healthy food habits, and has taught my two young sons how to eat healthier and eliminate waste from their lives. I have also rejected the purchase of any chemical detergents for cleaning and laundry. This way I know I am not polluting my home environment.

 

2.      Refuse – Say no to plastic bags always…be brave enough to Refuse on the spot. This R is bit more flexible than Rejecting. Depending on the occasion you might need to take some of the items you want. For example, if you are really thirsty and you have forgotten your reusable water bottle you may need to buy a bottles water from a shop. Then you may buy it but the bottle will be given for recycling. Therefore, you must be conscious about your choices.  This means you might buy or take items only when they are absolutely needed. Some items I have refused personally are paper bags, cloth bags, any wrappers including cardboard boxes, paper straws, milk packets, yoghurt, ice-cream, makeup, perfumes and even take-away food, online purchases etc. So, I will buy them only if I know how to manage the left-over waste that comes with the item. Otherwise, I will not buy or accept them.

 

3.      Reduce – think twice and reduce consumerism. When you practice the above-mentioned two “R”s you are automatically reducing loads of waste and also saving many resources. Still, you can reduce using paper, cloth, shoes, clothing, handbags, jewelry, perfumes. Always try to avoid using wrappers when you give a gift item. If absolutely necessary then use a compostable paper wrapper or a reusable wrapping like a muslin bag. Be aware that many trees are cut down to make paper; we are losing vast amounts of forest land because of paper production and agriculture.  Use less detergent, shampoo or soap and strive to completely eliminate all chemical products. You have plenty of natural alternatives now. Also, and importantly, be aware of the amount of food you consume daily. Wasted food feels like a crime to me. We must pay respect to our farmers by avoiding food waste. Also, we must be aware of how many resources, such as time, water, manure, and land, went into growing our food. Food wastes in landfills create methane gasses and are contributing to climate change. Each of us are obliged to consume a healthier, smaller quantity of food and to purchase food that has been grown through sustainable agricultural methods. Another resource we should treat with greater respect is water. Be conscious about how much water you are using when you bathe. Reducing water usage is an important step in the 10-R’s, especially as the planet is experiencing droughts and water shortages globally. In this same vein, we must reduce our global consumption of electricity and other sources of energy, fuels, etc. through frugal personal energy consumption.

 

4.      Reuse – Use a cloth bag and reuse hundreds of times. Even paper bags or plastic bags can be reused multiple times. Use reusable cutlery, crockery, or wrappers. When somebody gives you, a present wrapped in wrapping paper, remove it carefully and save for reuse later. This applies to bubble wrap, brown paper, commercially-made wrapping paper and other packaging. Before you buy an item, think twice about whether you can reuse it or not. Always reuse and upcycle whenever possible. When up-cycling, you should remember to upcycle something with no waste generated or whatever waste generated is recyclable. In the meantime, do not up-cycle an item where the end product is going to be waste.  For example, people like to upcycle plastic bottles (PET bottles) into growing/planting containers. When they cut them to make a planting container, loads of micro plastics are released into the environment and these small pieces of plastic are not recycled. Furthermore, the upcycled plastic growing container is then filled with soil and, over the growing period, this plastic breaks down into smaller, now contaminated pieces which are no longer recyclable and becomes a waste product that will not break down for thousands of years. It would have been better to return that water bottle for recycling when not contaminated, and even better to not purchase it in the first place. You can use other types of garden containers (even plastic pots) which are designed for growing plants and are durable so that you get years of use out of them before they become waste.  Never reuse plastic PET bottles for storage of food or liquid as they might be releasing Bisphenol- A (BPA) chemical over the time. In plastics, only type 4 (LDPE) 5 (PP) and 7(other) are meant to reuse for food and liquid.

 

5.      Repair – rather than simply discarding damaged bags, cloths, shoes, furniture, tools and other utensils, seek to repair them.  If something is broken, be creative and see if there is another way to use it if it can’t be repaired. This way you will be saving money and reducing the energy used for recycling.

 

6.      Replace – replace parts rather than buying new. Before you purchase anything new, always think about whether those items are reparable or replaceable. For example, if you buy plastic furniture, you will end up having to recycle when broken. Wooden and metal furniture has several other options when broken such as repair, replace reuse, and recycling.

 

7.      Recycle – always separate your waste and submit for recycling as almost everything, except for a few types of polythene, plastics and hazardous wastes, is recyclable. However, recycling is not always the best action; recycling requires a large amount of resources like energy and water and emits pollutants into the environment. Some areas accept recycling but don’t have the resources to actually recycle and so these items end up in the landfill. Hence, we must consider reducing recycling too. For example, you may feel that it is fine to use paper wrappers as they are compostable or recyclable. But never think that way.  Always be conscious about the original resources that went into making these items, and the resources that will be required to recycle them. If you use more recyclable items, and find yourself with large amounts of recycling, that means you are wasting natural resources.

 

 

8.      Rethink – You must think over and over again about how much you are consuming. Rethink your choices and choose Nature-friendly innovations. Be mindful about all positive action by practicing the above “R”s. Even though you may avoid many wastes coming into your home, you may still have some items that you can’t prevent from entering your life or home. So, the best solution to Rethink is having your own ECOBRICK. It’s the best solution you have at the moment to go towards a zero-waste lifestyle. I will give you one example. As I said, I have rejected buying unwanted items, but occasionally I buy a dress. The dress has a price tag, brand tag and sometimes many plastic labels. So, when I purchase my cotton dress all these tags are coming along with it. I cannot reject them and drop them at the shop. It would be a very extreme act too and I would lose the opportunity of exchanging it later if there is an issue. Even if I were able to leave the tags at the shop, they will be thrown into a waste bin at the shop.  Therefore, the end result is trash going into a landfill (nobody recycles such tiny tags). Trash often ends up in the ocean where it is responsible for killing many ocean creatures and ultimately ends up in our bodies where it can cause hormonal imbalances and cancers. What I believe is, if I purchase an item whatever labels, tags coming along with that product is my responsibility. So, I have decided that the best option is to bring the dress home with its tags, remove them carefully and collect all the tiny pieces and insert them into an ECOBRICK. By taking this small action you keep in mind all living beings, and rethink your own waste generation.

 

9.      Remember – to consume consciously, remember to take your own reusable bag, refillable water bottle, and reusable cutlery set when you go away from home. Always remember to keep extra bags or containers with you and in your vehicle, and remember to tell others of your good actions as inspiration for how they too can become more eco-friendly. By following the 10R’s and telling others about them, you will create many positive ripples in society. Remember to walk and talk your beliefs. If you forget today, be sure to remember right away and take action Now. We may not have time tomorrow.”

 

10.  Repeat – repeat all above actions every day in your life. Make it a habit like breathing in and breathing out. Make the 10R’s a beautiful song that you sing every day! Healthy consumerism, Healthy life and Healthy Planet with no waste!!!! The Planet will thank you by healing and thriving. For truly, we cannot thrive if the planet dies. This, then, should be our walking meditation from the time our eyes open until we close them at night: If not me, then who? If not now, when? 

 

Concept adopted and modified by Kanchana Weerakoon

Founder President of Eco Friendly Volunteers (ECO-V)  

www.eco-v.org

kanchanawr@gmail.com