Indian volunteers help to clean up Nad Al Sheba

Dubai: Approximately 200 volunteers from the Green Institute for Research and Development (GIRD), a Delhi-based non-governmental organisation, participated in "Clean up the World" activities in Nad Al Sheba on Friday, the final day of the four-day campaign.

Dubai Municipality, the organisers of the event, later handed Shamsudheen Abdul Khadar, secretary of GIRD, a trophy and a certificate recognising the fact that the NGO was the fifth largest group to have participated in the programme.

This was the second straight year that GIRD has participated in the UAE's biggest volunteer clean-up drive, which this year took place under the theme "Start today ... Save tomorrow."

Abdul Khadar, who worked in Dubai during the 1970s and early 1980s, said on Saturday that the environment should be taken into account when the city plans its massive construction projects, for the benefit of future generations.

Abdul Khadar, who has been involved in environmental and recycling activities for the last two decades, is vice president of the Confederation of NGOs of Rural India's Delhi Chapter. The confederation has 7,000 members all over India. He is also affiliated with the District Advisory Committee of the Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, the Ministry of Commerce's Agricultural and Processed Food Product Export Development Authority, the Ministry of Textiles' Apparel Export Promotion Council, the Central Committee of Delhi Malayalee Association and the Delhi Kerala Muslim Welfare Association.

GIRD, established in 1996 by a group of environmental and social activists, works for the protection and promotion of a healthy, natural environment.

The Dubai Municipality has participated in the global cleanliness campaign since 1994.