Ajman: Emirati grandma Mouza Hassan is a gracious lady. She is also very active at her age.
“Touching 80, right?” you ask her, and she is quick to correct you: “No, I am only 79.”
As she speaks on a Zoom call from her Ajman villa, you can tell she is as comfortable with the smart watch that she wears on her left hand as she is with the traditional green Abaya and Battoulah (metallic-looking mask) that she dons.
In fact, the easy blend of tradition and modernity in her is apparent in every aspect of her life.
“I make sure I clock more than 10,000 steps every day,” she tells you, looking at her smart watch. Her revelation follows a recent Gulf News story on Community Steps, a new initiative by the UAE’s official Year of Sustainability project to encourage residents to walk more with family and friends in their neighbourhoods.
Grandma Mouza is a natural when it comes to walking and all things sustainable.
“I have been walking all my life,” she says, explaining how she is essentially a mountain girl from Ras Al Khaimah, where walking was the only mode of getting around during her younger days.
“After all these years, I still enjoy moving around on foot,” she says.
“And she makes us also do that,” interjects Alia Al Shehi, one of Mouza’s 22 grandchildren who also doubles up as her translator.
“Every evening, she just has to go for a walk with some of us from the family or with her neighbours. She walks in the neighbourhood itself or sometimes goes to the beach too. She is on the move, and will not rest until she has crossed 10,000 steps on her watch,” she smiles.
Mouza begins her day outdoors in her garden. “Morning and afternoon Fuwala are daily routines in our life. We walk and visit each other and partake healthy delights made from fresh ingredients which we source from our farms,” says Mouza, adding that the Yahla, which is a type of potted jar, helps keep their water and other drinks cool during summer.
She says she regularly visits her farm which is home to many palm trees, mango trees, and local almonds (louz), berries, lettuce, parsley and other produce.
“She loves to do the gardening by herself, whether it is cleaning the sand pits or actually tending to the plants. She easily clocks in around 2,000-3,000 steps in her garden villa in the early part of the day itself,” shares Alia.
Although a diabetic, Mouza’s active lifestyle and balanced diet help in keeping her blood sugar under control, says the 25-year-old Alia, who looks up to her grandmother as a role model.
“Besides walking, she encourages us to swim, go fishing and hiking, all of which she is very good at as she has imbibed the ways of both the mountain people (Bdah) and the sea people (Hadhar),” says Alia.
“You see, sustainability is not new. It is an inherited concept as it has always been our way of life. I used to hike a lot in the mountains as a little girl for wood, herbs and honey,” Mouza says.
“Sustainability is deeply rooted in UAE society. In the early days, we fished only as much we needed. We also used the palm trees for a variety of purposes. It was never one-sided. We made sure our local environment stayed nourished too,” she adds.
She also reminisces how Emiratis in the early times would visit one another on foot. “When someone was sick, we were able to reach them on foot because our communities were smaller. Now because of urbanisation and the geographies spreading out, one needs to wait for the driver and take the car, not to mention seek an appointment with the people you wish to visit,” she says.
Mouza could well be the poster girl for sustainability, having made it a conscious choice of living for over seven decades of her life.
As the Year of Sustainability’s Project Lead Eisa Alsubousi has earlier said, the Year of Sustainability, which has continued into 2024 for the second year in the UAE, promotes collective sustainable action in key focus areas such as green transportation, water and energy reduction, responsible consumption and planting wisely, all of which, Mouza has been achieving, directly or indirectly.
“These are all values that our ancestors embodied in a beautiful way whilst being conscious of the environment around them, and we want to encourage the next generation to follow in their footsteps,” Alsubousi had said.
According to Abdulla Al Remeithi, a member of the Year of Sustainability Experts’ Network, “Carbon emissions from petrol cars are the second highest source of pollution in the UAE, so initiatives such as Community Steps are valuable in promoting a carbon-neutral lifestyle and encouraging the public to consider alternative forms of transportation whenever possible, such as walking or cycling for short-distance trips and sharing transport with friends and family.”
And the journey, as Mouza reiterates, invariably begins in the mind.
