Ecological matters

Spellathon on environment targets children

A ceremony to reward the winning students of the Enviro-Spellathon programme was organised by the Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency (ERWDA) recently at the Armed Forces Stadium.

Enviro-Spellathon is an environmental awareness programme targeted at students aged seven to 11 years. The programme involves spelling exercises through which the children learn about wildlife and environment in the UAE.

Each participant was given a folder with word lists and pictures of plants and animals accompanied by information on the environment. A minimum two weeks was allowed to study the material after which co-ordinator teachers of each school tested their students on the spelling of environment related words.

Enviro-Spellathon, the first of its kind in the UAE was sponsored by Shell Abu Dhabi. It was developed as a collaborative effort between the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Emirates Wildlife Society (EWS), Abu Dhabi Educational Zone and the Ministry of Education.

One thousand children and teachers attended the award ceremony. Ten ambassadors were selected from each of the participating private and government schools in Abu Dhabi.

The student ambassadors received prizes from Majid Al Mansouri, Secretary General, ERWDA, Salem Al Dhaheri, Director, Abu Dhabi Educational Zone, Dr Mohamed Al Defrawi, managing director, Shell Abu Dhabi, and Ahmad Jaafar, head of development, WWF.

Al Mansouri acknowledged the huge success of the programme saying 44,994 students from 172 schools (70 per cent of the Abu Dhabi government and private schools) and 300 teachers had participated.

Al Dhaheri said that the Abu Dhabi Educational zone has given environment education a top priority.

Dr. Defrawi said, "As an oil and gas company, Shell is very proud to work with ERWDA, the Abu Dhabi Educational zone and WWF-Emirates Wildlife Society."

The student ambassadors present at the award ceremony agreed that the competition has not only helped them to improve their environment vocabulary, but also increased their awareness about the environment.

Elroy and Jijin, both aged 11, of St Joseph's school, explained that the competition has increased their knowledge and developed in them the sense of conservation.

Ten years old Natalie and Amy of Abu Dhabi International School were happy to be ambassadors and were grateful to their parents and teachers for their encouragement.

Paula Musson, principal, elementary section, Abu Dhabi International School, from which over 1,000 students participated, said that the competition was tough and it was difficult for the co-ordinators to choose just ten ambassadors.

Ajith Kumar, the chief co-ordinator teacher, Our Own English School, said out of 420 students, who took part in the competition, 395 students scored above 85 per cent.

Dr. Frederic Launay, Director of WWF Projects Office applauded the Enviro-Spellathon's success and announced the programme's expansion to other emirates. Local partners for the initiative will be Dubai Municipality, Environmental Protection Area Authority in Sharjah and the Environmental Protection and Industrial Commission in Ras Al Khaimah.

ERWDA will be handling all the logistics and will help in conducting the activity.