Dubai: Fifteen-year-old camel crusader, Cameron Oliver, has appealed for sponsorship for his campaign, that aims to put an end to the ghastly death of camels every day in the desert from plastic bag poisoning.
"One in two camels continue to die every day from eating plastic bags and litter left by us humans in the desert," said Oliver, who first started his Don't Litter campaign in 2008, when he was just 11, after reading a Gulf News report.
He said although things appeared to have improved slightly since 2008 there was still a long way to go.
Oliver's campaign is built around educating people that camels often mistake waste plastic bags and litter for food and then eat these bags, which they cannot digest. Eventually, the bags will become calcified inside the camel's stomach, blocking the intestines, thus causing the animal to suffer a long and painful death from starvation. As much as 60kg of calcified plastic is regularly found inside a single camel's carcass.
Oliver has strong beliefs about animal welfare, instilled in him from his South African roots, and his campaign first came to the public's attention when he won the prestigious Abu Dhabi Awards Everyday Heroes in 2008.
He still continues his efforts by visiting schools to raise awareness. "But my pocket money and help from mom and dad are falling short of what is needed to keep the campaign going," he said, adding his campaign is in desperate need of sponsorship and support to help him reach his goal of reducing waste plastic bags and littering in the UAE.
The challenge he faces the most is to get the message out. "Everyone's listening but no one does anything about it," he said.
His personal motto comes from what his father taught him that every waterfall starts with one drop of water. And that even a small step can make a big difference. "So please stop littering!" Oliver said in a message to the public.
Many parts of the UAE's desert are filled with rubbish thrown away by campers, he said. "When I took part in a clean-up once, I saw litter collected from a small area filled up two trailers."
He urged people to take their rubbish, especially plastic bags, home with them so they can be disposed of or recycled properly.
In 2008, when he was bestowed the Abu Dhabi Award by General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, Oliver made a promise to Shaikh Mohammad that he would not cease his fight until camels had stopped dying because of waste plastic bags and littering.
"That gives me the motivation to keep going."
Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak Secretary-General of the Environment Agency, Abu Dhabi (EAD) said: "Cameron Oliver has been a great ambassador for our ‘Make UAE Plastic-Bag Free' campaign and we encourage other young people to follow in his footsteps."
