Inspired by our visionary leader His Highness Shaikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, who believes in the power of education to eradicatepoverty, our youth organisation, Green Hope, launched a campaign called “Gift of Education” to benefit some orphanages in Kathmandu, Nepal.
We work to achieve a sustainable future by direct engagement and upliftment of the marginalised sections of civil society. Poverty eradication is one of the greatest challenge facing humanity. We believe that education provides a long term solution to this issue and our current campaign was a step in this direction.
Over a period of several weeks in May and June, our members collected books, pencils and assorted stationery products, painstakingly saving their pocket money or raising funds within their circle of friends for this purpose. The team collected over 100 kilograms of educational materials by the end of June.
In the meantime, we established contact with ‘Prisoners Assistance Nepal’, a nonprofit organisation that runs several centres for the children of prisoners, languishing in various local jails.
On July 1, a team of three Green Hope members, comprising of 15-year-old Emile Anand, 13-year-old Aryan Orpe and I, flew to Kathmandu with several cartons of books, clothes, light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs and stationery products.
Over the next few days, we visited several orphanages and underprivileged areas, interacting with the hapless children and distributed the items we had collected. We conducted workshops and enlightened the children about various sustainability issues such as stopping food wastage, conservation and saving water. They showed a lot of interest to get involved with our campaigns.
Their enthusiasm to learn was amazing and all of them were eager to know how they could help in achieving a sustainable future. We also conducted a workshop at a local school, spoke to them about the Sustainable Development Goals, our projects and made them take eco-pledges. We also visited an orphanage housing children of HIV positive parents, many of whom had already succumbed to the deadly disease. The “Babylife HIV Home” appeared to be in dire need of assistance and we donated clothes, notebooks and other stationery items, which lit up the faces of its child residents. Their paintings depicted wonderful messages about protecting the environment. Their plight was really sad to behold and we left with a promise to bring in more support.
During the visit, we also planted 100 saplings with the students of a local school as a symbolic green gesture. We also visited a village in the Kathmandu valley and went from hut to hut to distribute the LED bulbs to the local people. Additionally, we visited a home of senior citizens and spoke to them about energy conservation and how they could use the LED bulbs.
This visit has made us realise that no matter where we live, we all speak the same language and are equally passionate about protecting our planet. We, the youth are the future and our future is what we make of it.
— The reader is the founder of the youth campaign Green Hope and is based in Dubai.
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