This teacher from Sweden staying on a three-month vacation evokes curiosity among people living in the neighbourhood of the Payyambalam beach in Kannur as she volunteers every morning to collect the litter left behind by people who visited the beach previous evening and put them in a pit to keep the beach garbage-free.
Ann-Kristin Hahne, a schoolteacher from Kiruna located 1,200 km north of Stockholm, is serving as a teacher of a different kind while she is holidaying here.
What she teaches the local people through her voluntary cleanliness drive on the beach is the message of keeping the beach and the surroundings clean and tidy.
Staying in a house facing the beach, she picks the litter strewn around in the main portion of the beach. She does the job using a litter-picker and a waste bin.
“Kerala is known as God’s own country and such a place should not be dirty,” she told The Hindu when asked about her voluntary cleaning work every morning during her stay here.
Describing the Payyambalam beach as one of the wonderful beaches in the State, she said that every day it is found littered with throwaway waste.
‘No waste bin’ Her only complaint is that there is no waste bin on the beach. “I would be very happy if the people here are proud of the beauty of the place,” she noted. She stressed the importance of creating awareness among children of keeping public places clean.
Ms. Hahne, 68, has been here since November 21 last year and will be leaving for Sweden on February 22.
This is not her first visit to India, she said adding that she invariably travels abroad in December-January period every year when the sun does not rise in Kiruna as it is located 145 km north of Arctic Circle and has a Sub-Arctic climate with short summers and long winters.
