After the beautiful and heartfelt wedding in Gandevi, India, I found myself reflecting on the power of small actions. The wedding had been a celebration of love, community, and the connections that bind us all together symbolically through a eternal metal band. A ring. It was in this spirit of connection and change that I recalled my “Postcard Project,” a simple yet meaningful way to give back to the places I visit while raising awareness about environmental and social responsibility.
The idea behind the Postcard Project is straightforward but impactful. Wherever I travel (locally / internationally) , I seek out littered areas and, armed with a pair of gloves and a few trash bags, I clean them up. But I don’t just stop there. I take the rubbish I’ve collected, clean it, and use it to create postcards-unique, tangible pieces of the very place I’ve visited. Instead of sending a postcard with a generic photo of the location, I send a piece of that place itself, transformed from trash into art to friends and families around the world.
In Gandevi, after the wedding festivities had quieted down, I took a drive through the village and local towns. India is utterly charming, full of life and more people than you could ever imagine, but like many places, it wasn’t immune to the problem of litter. So, I decided to roll up my sleeves and start cleaning. What began as a solitary effort quickly became something more. Curious locals, both young and old, came over to see what I was doing. Some offered a helping hand, while others simply watched, intrigued by the sight of a foreigner picking up trash in their town.
As we worked together, I realised that this project wasn’t just about cleaning up; it was about connecting with people, sharing ideas, and inspiring change. It was about showing that while we may not be able to change the whole world on our own, we can certainly change the little corner of it where we stand. And if we all did that, the world would indeed be a different place.
This is what the Postcard Project is all about. It’s an environmental project, yes, but it’s also a social one. It’s about bringing people together, about taking responsibility for our surroundings, and about making a statement-however small-that we care about the world we live in. It’s a reminder that change doesn’t have to be big or dramatic to be meaningful. Sometimes, it’s the small, quiet actions that can make the biggest difference.
As I created the postcards from the cleaned-up litter in Gandevi, I thought about a quote from Barack Obama’s 2012 speech: “One voice can change a room. And if it can change a room, it can change a city. And if it can change a city, it can change a state. And if it can change a state, it can change a nation. And if it can change a nation, it can change the world.”
The Postcard Project is my small way of embodying this idea. By taking a tiny piece of the world and transforming it into something beautiful, I hope to inspire others to do the same-to look around them, to see what they can change, and to take action, no matter how small.
After all, if we all took just a little bit of time to clean up our own little corners of the world, imagine the change we could create together.
