Ras Al Khaimah: The sounds of excited chatter compete with the sound of waves crashing on the shore. For the pupils of the Indian High School in Ras Al Khaimah, this was no ordinary day at the beach.
The pupils, from grades 9 to 11, were on a mission to clean up the Kuwaiti Beach as part of their 'Green house goes Green' campaign.
"Every house [in the school] is given a week to do or present anything they are interested in. Because I was inspired by Gulf News 'Go Green' campaign, I decided to do an environmental campaign with my house for the week that was given to us," said Neha Hudlikar, leader of the Green house.
From May 11 to 15, the pupils participated in various activities such as daily presentations and debates organised by their peers to highlight various environmental problems.
"We brought in Archana Bhayiani from the Environmental Protection Agency. She gave an audio-visual presentation about the UAE, such as which species are now extinct and which are in danger of extinction," said Kumari Eman, from the Green house. "She also gave brochures and techniques on how to re-use plastic, which was interesting."
The school also organised a competition on the theme 'Which materials could be recycled and how'.
Pupils from grades 8 to 12 conducted an in-school survey about what was being wasted and how much.
Lunch break
"During lunch break, we went around campus with our teachers to pick up litter," said Jovin M. Anthraper, a grade 11 pupil. "Another thing our teachers did to encourage us to reduce waste was to reward us with extra marks if we proved that we were recycling."
The teachers of the Green house decided to take their campaign one step further and organised a beach clean-up.
"We went for an hour and picked up a lot of garbage. It felt nice that we were doing something for once instead of just listening to people talk about helping the environment," said Ishita Mandhan, a grade 11 pupil.
