he Heritage School, Kolkata, India: The students at The Heritage School take part in various kinds of projects, at the local, national and international levels which gives them a platform to work for the community and help people. These projects are done round the year and are a part of the school curriculum. This report contains a bird’s eye view of projects undertaken this academic year. A group of students started off on a project recently, which is funded by the BOSCH Company from Germany. We talked to the international project coordinator of our school, Ira Bhattacharya and she told us all about it. She said, “International projects give students the platform to work with the wider community and understand global problems at the grassroots level. It gives them an opportunity to bring about change and feel happy at the thought that they can make a difference to the lives of others. It is an immensely satisfying feeling.” The theme of the Project being undertaken with German collaboration is ‘Renewable Energy’ and under this project the students learnt how to assemble solar lanterns which they then decided to give to the village. The villagers previously used kerosene lamps for both cooking and for lighting their homes. Kerosene is not only unaffordable but also harmful for the environment. Using solar powered lamps has made the villagers aware of the benefits of using renewable energy and it has also helped them economically. In the next phase of the project the students will assemble solar cookers and give them to a few poor families of Chowbaga. The school decided that families in the village which have children who are studying in its evening school for the underprivileged called ‘Surya Kiran’ will be given solar lamps while others will be given solar cookers. We talked to some of the German students who were here as part of the BOSCH exchange programme and had visited Chowbaga. When asked whether such projects are important one of them said, “Yes of course, because you don’t only learn or hear or see something about the country, you feel the country, which invokes a great feeling to help them.”