This is a story about a person who comes from a family of farmers.
I am Venkateshwarlu and I work with Greenpeace as a fundraiser. I spent most of my childhood with my parents, working on a farm in our village. And that's why I have closely seen climate change. My childhood was great because we had enough water for our farm and we didn't use a lot of fertilizers for our crops. And everything was fine.
The way climate is changing, it is affecting the farms very badly. We have now started using a lot of fertilizers but the production has not increased. There is also not enough water for the crops. There are no jobs either and that's why I moved to the city to help support my family.
I reached Hyderabad and got a job with a private organisation to work as a Sales Executive. I worked there for almost four and half years, but that did not give me any satisfaction. Finally, one day I got to know about Greenpeace and what it does. Then I thought that this is the right platform for me to do something for society and for myself as well.
I joined the movement! While raising funds I was participating in a lot of actions and public engagement activities at Greenpeace. In 2009, I participated in a protest against genetically modified rice, manufactured by Bayer Crops. In turn I was arrested and a case was filed against me and the other volunteers who took part in the protest. The case against us went on for almost four years. It was not easy going to court every month but when we were released by the end of it, I felt a sense of pride that I had been a part of an action that was successful in communicating the hazards of genetically modified rice in India.
By participating in all these protests, I want to tell everyone that we need to save the environment.