The Wake the Lake portal was opened by United Way Bengaluru to the local lake communities on Sunday, the 21 st of July. It was conducted at the St Joseph’s Indian High School.
The objective of the event was to hand over the baton to the individual local lake societies where the portal will act like a common platform linking all the lakes in one space.
At 7 am, lake community members slowly started filing in. Once everyone settled in, there was an ice-breaking activity led by David Kumar where the aim was to get all the lake communities know each other and not to stick around with their own members. This is crucial in the long run since every lake needs to cooperate and collaborate with the other without losing its individuality in order to strengthen the force of lakes under one umbrella, as one. After all, united we stand, divided we fall.
Moving on, each lake community was asked to introduce their lake to the one standing on either sides. They were then asked to name 2 boards that can be found on its lake premise. They were also asked to name two plants found commonly near their lakes and also to tell one dream related to their lake to the lake community next to them. Such small activities served to energize the crowd on a sleepy Sunday morning. This was followed by a discussion on the kind of work UWBe does for the society and it extended to talks on the problems faced by the lakes in terms of funds with respect to its corporate partners and the lack of consensus between BBMP’s internal departments. It was fruitful in the sense that everyone got a rough idea of each other’s lakes’ situations – the common issues that every lake faces and also the specific ones too.
Every lake community was proactive in leading the discussions which made the event quite successful. Rajesh Krishnan, UWBe Executive Director, responded to the discussions and also expand upon the specific role that the NGO plays in these undertakings.
Having said so, the event moved into its next segment which was the unveiling of the Wake the Lake portal. The lake communities were taken through the portal with its introduction by BG Mahesh. He explained the pages of the portal with specific and detailed emphasis on the importance of the lake communities owning their own lake pages and taking the responsibility for the same. They were told that each lake is given a specific page where all its details have been put up such as its location, facilities created along with the donate option.
It was made clear to them that the donations received for each lake, to the last penny, will be directed to their lake associations. UWBe is simply the initiator and the facilitator who would eventually hand over the control of the portal to a third party. After this productive discussion, everyone moved to the back of the basketball court where around 30 saplings were planted by all the participants.
The whole event could be a stupendous success, thanks to each and every lake community that participated wholeheartedly!
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